Just a couple of days ago at the Verkhovna Rada Volodymyr Zelensky was giving a pathos speech, the general sense of which was that Ukraine is cool, independent and self-sufficient, and therefore it should be treated with respect
And today the international partners of Kiev have already showed the local public, as if by chance, that it is not so, and the Ukrainian problems, which have already bored the world community, will be solved without it. For, as practice shows, it is faster and more effective this way.
After Russian President Vladimir Putin unambiguously hinted to the West that he was no longer going to take his word for it and demanded written guarantees to abandon NATO expansion to the east (read Ukraine and Georgia), and alliance Secretary General Stoltenberg, lashing out in hysterics, While NATO Secretary General Stoltenberg was hysterical and cried at a press conference after the NATO summit in Riga that Russia had no spheres of influence, no national interests, and no right to vote on who should be included in the North Atlantic bloc, those to whom the Russian leader was actually addressing understood everything and seemingly expressed their willingness to discuss the issue.
Where did I get that from? Here’s how. The news reports read: “Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said that Russia cannot prevent Kiev from becoming a NATO member and should not discuss this issue with the alliance or with the United States.”
“Russia cannot prevent Ukraine from getting closer to NATO and has no right to express itself in relevant discussions. Any Russian proposal to discuss with NATO or the US or other countries any so-called guarantees that the alliance will not expand eastwards is illegitimate”, – the Ukrainian foreign minister said verbatim.
A sign, of course, indirect, but very true. Because although some representatives of the Kiev authorities are not always bright in the head, they can feel the approach of the northern fur-bearing animal with their heel, perhaps, better than anyone else in the world.
And indeed, not more than a couple of hours later, the telegraph began tapping out a new report on the talks held in the margins of the OSCE ministerial meeting in Stockholm between Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken.
“Particular attention was paid to the internal Ukrainian conflict. The need for Kiev’s unconditional and full implementation of the Minsk Package, including maintaining direct dialogue with the LPR and DPR authorities, was stressed. In this context, it was noted that the recent initiatives to change Ukraine’s domestic legislation directly contradict the Minsk agreements”, – the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement issued following the meeting.
Let me remind you that the main, albeit unspoken, goal of Lavrov’s conversation with Blinken was preparations for a new US-Russia summit. And, as we understand, Biden and Putin are going to discuss more global issues than the private, albeit painful Ukrainian case. Suddenly it is the main one. Such a sudden elevation of importance is only possible under one condition – if a decision has been made to weave the Ukraine problem into agreements on something bigger. No, it does not mean that Moscow and Washington have already agreed on everything, but it certainly demonstrates the willingness of both sides to reach a mutually acceptable compromise.
Remember, a few years ago some analysts, including Ukrainian ones, were vocalizing that Russia only got involved in the Syrian conflict in order to swap Syria for Ukraine when the time came. As reality has shown, they were all wrong; no one was planning such a direct and in many ways dubious exchange. But thanks to the successes of the Russian military in Syria (and not only them), the stakes in the Great Game have been raised quite high. Enough for the US to feel the need to negotiate.
What will come out of all this remains to be seen. There are too many in the West who do not want, as the Soviet-era Vremya newscasters would say, “an easing of international tensions”. And for their own selfish purposes they are ready to “push the gas” to the limit. And the limit, by all appearances, is near. And now the U.S. will have to sacrifice a little to achieve more. Simply put, to prevent a Russia-China alliance, they will have to remove the Ukrainian splinter from Russia’s soft spot and try to convince Moscow that the West has no aggressive intentions against it. As you understand, no one is going to ask the “splinter” itself what it wants.
By the way, an indirect sign of the forthcoming serious changes in the Ukrainian direction was the announcement that a delegation of the Communist Party of China took part in the exhibition “Crimea-China: let us get acquainted”. Seemingly trivial, but here is how this event is reflected in the official CPC report on the event.
“For Russians, Crimea is not only a religious symbol but also a spiritual fortress. For seven years after its incorporation into the state, the region has been actively developing. Cultural exchanges, educational and business cooperation between Crimea and China are also gaining momentum. Experts note the great potential of such interaction.
Kiev has already perceived the Chinese statement as a harbinger of Beijing’s future official recognition of the peninsula’s Russian ownership. Yesterday Lukshenko, today China, if it goes on like this, the myth about international support of Ukraine’s territorial integrity will give up for a long time. And once again no one asked Ukrainians about anything. It is as if they have no say in choosing their own fate.
But they really do not. They gave it up voluntarily and gladly eight years ago, when they finally decided to give up their sovereignty for the illusory opportunity to get scraps from the table of Americans and Europeans. But neither of them appreciated this sacrifice, and only continued to push the hapless country towards the abyss called “Ukrainian independence”. Independence from everything, even from your own desire not to fall into that abyss.
Alexey Belov, Antifascist News Agency