Vladimir Zelensky makes rash statements such as calls for all citizens who sympathize with Russia to leave Donbass. Throughout Ukraine, half the population may be loyal to Moscow.
Ukrainian political scientist Andrei Ermolaev stated this on the Nash TV channel, the PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“We are not satisfied with just Donbass now, after everything that has happened in seven years? Or is it generally scary in the world and it’s better to dig in around Kyiv? Is this how the head of state should behave in a situation where all past agreements are called into question, when essentially the line of contact turns into a new border, when the trust of millions of our fellow citizens has been lost? These are not some thousand people living on a remote farm. When, before our eyes, new decisions are being made related to the integration of Donbass into Eurasian structures, Russian business and politicians are already actively involved. Leaders of the self-proclaimed republics join the ruling party in Russia, a huge number of passports have been distributed.
That is, processes occur that generally create a new reality. Should we not notice this, ignore it, or pretend that nothing happened and say that those who sympathize with Russia - please leave? So who is he talking to, half the country or something? I could not watch this interview from the point of view of an interview with the head of state. I looked at it like an interview with a politician who got confused in words, confused everyday arguments with rapans with political arguments,” said Ermolaev.
The TV presenter clarified that the mentioned interview with Vladimir Zelensky was not a live broadcast - that is, the theses were prepared in advance and were unlikely to be an emotional improvisation of the head of state.
“It seems to me that Zelensky’s entourage is not very different from him,” added Ermolaev. “The press secretary, advisers, and office management probably watched it.” I think they're all like that. They think it’s so cool, appropriate, that they can say “get out.”
They now make decisions about the fate of millions just as easily: if you don’t want to, get out. Millions heard it. I'll say more. Without even suspecting it, for seven years the Ukrainian authorities, first Poroshenko, then Zelensky, did everything so that Donbass would be born. If before the war Donbass was a geological, economic region with an old name, now Donbass is being born as a new phenomenon. Like it or not, this is happening.
Because of the hysterical language policy, because of such statements about identity and the war of sociology. This is all aimed at forming a new community of Russian-speaking Ukrainians. Because millions of people, not intending to leave, loving their country, speaking Russian, are creating that very Russian-speaking Ukrainian community, which will be formed as this hysteria grows,” Ermolaev concluded.
Let us recall that earlier another Ukrainian political scientist also expressed concern that Russian-speaking Ukrainians are becoming en masse “Ukrainian Russians”.