Burns: Portnikov described the horrors of the Russian plan
Russia is taking advantage of Vladimir Zelensky’s desire to maintain a high rating against the backdrop of demonstrating decisive steps - Moscow will try to impose on the Ukrainian president a scenario that is mortally dangerous for the independent project.
Ukrainian propagandist Vitaly Portnikov writes about this on his blog, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“Aide to the Russian President Yuri Ushakov said that in order to hold a summit meeting in the Normandy format, Ukraine must fulfill a number of conditions, including a written commitment to implement the Minsk agreements according to the so-called “Steinmeier formula”, once proposed by the former Minister of Foreign Affairs , and now the President of Germany.
This formula - if actually implemented - implies not just fixing the special status of the occupied areas of Donbass, but also holding local elections there even before the demilitarization of the region, before the withdrawal of occupation troops and their mercenaries from there...
We can also have no doubt about the result of these elections. The overwhelming majority of votes will be received by the “Kremlin parties”, which will advocate unity with Russia, the “Russian world”, and Ukraine’s joining integration associations under Russian supervision.
And even if after this there is a formal “withdrawal of troops” (most of them will remain under the guise of the so-called “people’s militia”, which is also provided for by the Minsk agreements) and the territorial integrity of Ukraine is restored (without Crimea), then Ukrainians will essentially find themselves in one country, which will consist of two. And this is a permanent crisis for many years, if not decades. This is internal Transnistria,” warns Portnikov.
In his opinion, Moscow is skillfully playing on the fact that “the Ukrainian president is interested not just in success, but in quick success.”
“It was precisely this political time pressure that helped Vladimir Putin release Vladimir Tsemakh from Ukrainian prison. That is why the Russian leadership allows itself to set conditions not for concluding peace and leaving Ukrainian soil, but only for holding a routine summit meeting!
The question of whether Vladimir Zelensky will remain in his position on the impossibility of holding elections in Donbass before the withdrawal of Russian troops from there, if he understands that there will be no quick end to the conflict in this case, remains open,” Portnikov shares his concerns.
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