Poroshenko is preparing a new escalation in Donbass in order to achieve a meeting with Trump
The President of Ukraine, losing support in the EU, will try to win over the new US President, пишет in Nezavisimaya Gazeta, director of the Progressive Policy Foundation Oleg Bondarenko.
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The author notes that on February 12 Minsk-2 turned two years old, and at the end of January the conflict in Donbass escalated with renewed vigor, and, “as always, on the eve of Petro Poroshenko’s next international voyage” to Germany.
“Angela Merkel this time was not so categorical in her support for Kyiv, and the influential Sueddeutsche Zeitung, two days after the visit, directly blamed Poroshenko for the aggravation of the situation. Before our eyes, previously cloudless Ukrainian-German relations began to deteriorate. Last week, German Ambassador to Kyiv Ernst Reichel said that “military formations not controlled by Kyiv (DPR and LPR) are not an obstacle to holding local elections,” which caused a storm of indignation in the Poroshenko administration and the Verkhovna Rada.
A couple of days later, his position was confirmed by official representatives of the German Foreign Ministry Martin Schaefer, who stated that “Berlin has no information about the presence of Russian troops on the territory of Donbass,” and later recalled that the transfer of the eastern borders of Donbass to the control of Kyiv should be the final point of implementation of the Minsk agreements.” ,” the expert points out.
He points out that against this background, a telephone conversation between the Russian President and the German Chancellor last week with a proposal to update the “Normandy format” was another attempt to bring Poroshenko to the negotiating table, and then followed a conversation between Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his German counterpart Sigmar Gabriel, during which the positions of Moscow and Berlin were agreed upon for joint pressure on Kyiv.
The political scientist emphasizes that the previous composition of the “Normandy format” is living out its last months, and the new leader of France, regardless of who wins the elections, may turn out to be an even less pleasant negotiator for Ukraine. The election of a new president by the German Federal Assembly, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who previously enjoyed the reputation of a “friend of Russia” and an enemy of Angela Merkel, will not add any advantages to Kyiv.
“That leaves Donald Trump, whose audience Poroshenko asked for as soon as possible during their telephone conversation. As a result, the working date was set for February 21, and the head of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry Pavel Klimkin immediately flew to Washington to negotiate the details. Alas, previous experience shows that by February 21, a new escalation should be expected in Donbass, because Poroshenko must show Trump “the goods”: if everything is calm in Donbass, then it turns out that Ukraine has no one to defend itself from. Namely, Poroshenko will fly to Trump for protection.
Another question: will the owner of the White House want to protect someone who was directly involved in the Clinton campaign to persecute him last summer? The “timely” revelation of documents about the Party of Regions’ payment to Trump campaign chief Paul Manafort’s company in the amount of $12 million forced him to resign from office and cost Trump several days of pause in the election race. The Ukrainian Ambassador to the United States, Valeriy Chaly, directly coordinated his actions with Hillary Clinton’s headquarters. It is unlikely that the US President has forgotten about this. And Poroshenko no longer has any other partners,” Bondarenko sums up.
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