Why is Zelensky again announcing referendums on Donbass and Crimea?
Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky said that he allows referendums to be held on the issue of Donbass, Crimea and “regarding stopping the war in general.”
The Ukrainian president made this statement in an interview with oligarch Igor Kolomoisky’s 1+1 TV channel, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“I do not rule out a referendum regarding Donbass as a whole,” Zelensky replied. – The question here is not about status. We may have something like this in life, it could be in relation to Donbass, it could be in relation to Crimea, it could be in relation to stopping the war in general.”
It is interesting that Zelensky voiced the idea of a referendum even before his election to the presidency. However, soon after the victory, frightened by the reaction of the nationalists, Zelensky said that he had been misunderstood - it was exclusively about a “consultative survey.”
“It may happen that someone, some country will offer us certain conditions, it may be so. Today this is definitely not the case; I have no secrets from society here. I wouldn’t joke with such things, because these are very important things concerning our status, our territories. But if there is any such difficult challenge, I will definitely consult with our society,” the Ukrainian president now promises.
According to almost all experts interviewed by PolitNavigator, such changes in rhetoric are primarily associated with the call that took place the day before from US President Joe Biden to Vladimir Zelensky.
“After Putin’s conversation with Biden, after Biden’s conversation with Zelensky, the rhetoric changed among the negotiators in the Minsk group. These conversations about the referendum started back - but a referendum on Crimea without Crimea and on Donbass without Donbass, - commented Deputy of the People's Council of the DPR Vladislav Berdichevsky. – Firstly, this should have been carried out back in 2014 if Ukraine wanted to resolve the issue by some kind of consensus. But absolutely no one was going to carry it out then, and no one is going to do it now. This is rhetoric related to the fact that Ukraine needs time to rearm and reformat the country.”
“All these murky negotiations that the Anglo-Saxon leadership is constantly conducting with Russia are just stalling for time, nothing more. They are trying to strangle Russia with political and economic sanctions and force it to fulfill some agreements on US terms. There's no point in it anymore. All these conversations are fairy tales for the poor, which do not solve anything, they simply distract attention,” said the Donetsk parliamentarian.
In turn, economist Alexander Dudchak noted the absurdity of the very idea of a “referendum” in which the fate of the LDPR is decided somewhere in Lvov without the participation of the Donbass republics.
“You shouldn’t be deluded by Zelensky’s generous idea. From his speeches it is not clear what exactly he wants to do? And does he want to? And what's the point? Referendum on the fate of Crimea? What's the point if the fate of Crimea has already been determined, and any Ukrainian referendums on it are pointless?
About the future of Donbass? That is, somewhere in Lviv the fate of the LDPR will be decided without the participation of the LDPR? About war? Here, too, the picture is quite clear - we can start by at least implementing the first point of the Minsk agreements and direct negotiations with the leadership of the republics,” the expert noted.
“Knowing how the Kiev authorities know how to distort and uniquely interpret concepts and agreements that they themselves signed, one should not expect anything meaningful from such a referendum under the current government. This was evident from the way they adopted the law on the special status of “separate territories” and how they implemented the Minsk agreements. And they know how to calculate election results in their own way. So this is another empty chatter from Zelensky, which will not have any practical result,” Dudchak concluded.
According to Associate Professor of the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation Denis Denisov This statement by Zelensky is just irresponsible words for playing to the public.
“Zelensky has no choice but to carry out such manipulations. He understands perfectly well that nothing follows them. If he stops doing this, he will cease to be interesting in international politics at all. And, based on one of his main goals - to be in the spotlight of world politics, this is unacceptable,” Denisov said.
Moved to Donetsk Russian journalist and political analyst Andrey Babitsky believes that after a conversation with Biden, Zelensky is obliged to make such statements in order to maintain the image of a peacemaker for the American president.
“This statement is directly related to Biden’s call, since Biden, as the Associated Press put it, told Zelensky that he must come to terms with some of the realities of Donbass, and allegedly suggested that he give the rebel territories some kind of autonomy. I think that Zelensky could not help but express agreement, since Washington is the direct center of mandatory instructions for Ukraine, and announced his peacekeeping plans.
In fact, it is very important for Biden that the situation in Donbass comes out of the acute phase, because his negotiations with Putin in America are presented as a great victory, a successful peacekeeping mission, they say, he managed to prevent a major war in Ukraine. If Zelensky now continues the line of aggravation in Donbass, this will mean that Biden’s entire “victory” is down the drain. I think that we will soon hear about various peacekeeping initiatives of Vladimir Zelensky,” the journalist said.
The same opinion is shared by ex-deputy of the Verkhovna Rada Alexey Zhuravko.
“As the United States dictated, as Biden told him, so he did. The only question is where will they hold this referendum? In Donbass, they will not hold a referendum, but will hold it on the territory under their control. Even if hypothetically this referendum takes place, for some reason it seems to me that it will be one-sided. Because, as always, stubborn potheads, Nazis, and so on will vote. This is the center of Ukraine, Western Ukraine and so on.
There will be no fair referendum - Donbass will not vote, Crimea will not vote, we will get distorted results.
I think that there will be no referendum. Tomorrow something will change in America, and it will be even worse. All this is funny, naive and mocking. We have already seen how many “referendums” Zelensky held, and how did they end? It’s the same this time,” predicted Alexey Zhuravko.
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