On two realities

“The laws on the special status of Donbas will be canceled. Militants rejected the possibility of a dialog,” the president’s words seem to show his enlightenment at the time when the enemy did not merely strengthen its positions, but has already conducted its own election. One can only shudder at that, because Petro Poroshenko has been playing at peacemaker for almost half a year. Was it just demonstrative frankness without unnecessary words of repentance? Or is it wordplay again? Or perhaps, it is fine diplomacy, when the enemy is given an opportunity to make mistakes, and then clean hands are raised, saying, it’s all the enemy’s fault. Everything is possible in our world of virtual political reality with absolutely real casualties and losses.

Our president is very smart. He truly deserves the post he occupies. Unfortunately, as it often happens here, he should have been a president of a real European country, which should not be affected by war. He would have coped with its economy perfectly and would have made an advanced state out of it. A brilliant negotiator, an ingenious speaker. But it has been already established historically that we need a hetman, not a president. An aggressive, determined, people’s man. Our troubles started when the hetmans turned into an elite class. And this arrogant elite still oppresses the reality of our existence, because we are ordinary people with simple ways of thinking. Whether you are guilty or not, whether you lie or speak the truth. That is why we are so sick and tired of the ornaments of our leaders’ speeches that we subconsciously reject any sophisticated lexical structures. We would rather listen to Klitschko’s anecdotal speeches once more than turn our ear to the wise instructions of “the fathers of the nation.” I think it has become clear long ago: Kravchuk and Yushchenko are good examples.

It turns out, the president’s eyes were finally opened. On the next day after the “election” in Donbas Poroshenko condemned such activities. As if he did not know it was bound to happen, as if he did not believe in the magical power of potatoes for one hryvnia per kilogram on the “election” day. He allegedly did his best. He wanted peace, kindness, calm. He sent Kuchma to negotiate with gang leaders (thus legalizing them) to stop the bloodshed. He proved in front of the whole world that he professed his peacemaking mission. And the most important was to remember to end each speech with the slogan “Glory to Ukraine!” which definitely adds a dogmatic sense to it. And what now? Everything indicates that now we have to attack to free Donbas from the scum that does not give a damn about the already disgraceful for us Minsk agreements. From the bastards who now, at this very moment, are torturing Ukrainians in their basements. Now we have to attack, having taken into account all the mistakes we made last summer. At least this logic should be seen behind the president’s extremely specific statement “the militants rejected the possibility of a dialog.”

Photo by Mykhailo MARKIV

It is no secret that the president’s authority decreased during the past few months. At first, distrust of him grew after the first attempts at negotiations with participation of Kuchma, Medvedchuk, and even Shufrych. But the victorious stride of our army inspired hope. The liberation of Sloviansk, Kramatorsk, Sievierodonetsk, Lysychansk, Rubizhne, Debaltseve, and other Donbas cities and towns inspired us to believe that the president works correctly in the area of negotiations, as well as on the military front. Tactical miscalculations in the ATO, which everyone was afraid of calling the war, were blamed on the fact that we did not intend to wage war and were not prepared for it. Later, the systemic nature of such miscalculations lead to other unpleasant thoughts about treason. That is when we remembered how easily key cities of Donbas were given to the enemy, how our soldiers were slaughtered in pockets or even without fighting. All this is carved in memory and echoes with unsavory conclusions and suspicions. Underlying those conclusions were all those negotiations, the so-called armistices, and the likes of Kuchma, Medvedchuk, Shufrych, Plotnytsky, or Zakharchenko. It was then that troops raised their voices saying that they had not received orders to storm the exhausted facilities and cities. Conversely, they had been ordered to retreat. Moreover, the same is being done now, thus enabling the enemy to prepare new bloodbaths. It was then that we started to notice how our frontline forces were divided and set under the enemy’s fire. All the bits fell together into one jigsaw puzzle with a clear outline of betrayal.

“You cannot beat Putin” was the main argument preached to us to justify the defeats. “We need peace,” they argued, but never produced this peace in reality. Instead, new territories were surrendered. “We do not recognize them,” repeated the leaders while sitting down to negotiate with the ones they so despised, and even signing some deals with them. A game, a haggle, a bluff, one big talking shop. People stopped trusting anything. People are tired and responded with a record low turnout at the October 26 election. Instead, at the pseudo-election of November 2 the elderly in starving cities stood in a line for hours to get a kilo of potatoes at the polling station. Everything went like clockwork. Kyiv was allowed to hold its own election and lead the Opposition Bloc into the parliament, while reinforcing Poroshenko’s near-absolute power; in its turn, Kyiv allowed the bandits to claim their foothold in Donbas, without recognizing them of course. Looks like it was totally fixed, as people would say. In the meantime, the enemy’s forces are deployed with a view to firmly establishing themselves in the strategically important eastern territories of our country: first of all, in the cities of the coal basin.

REUTERS photo

Dmytro Sniehiriov, a public activist from Luhansk, reports: “The Ukrainian party is negotiating about shipping coal to Ukrainian power stations. Donbas was traditionally the main supplier of coal, despite all the state subsidies it received. Of course, the Ukrainian party has to negotiate not with the so-called ‘governments’ of DNR or LNR, since it would mean recognizing them. They talk with the bosses of the enterprises which remained in Donbas. In more precise words, with the Kremlin.” Further he goes on to say that “a situation has effectively arisen when Ukraine is forced to buy its own coal from terrorists.”

This explains the grins of our politicians, who are doing perfectly well, and the “armistice,” and the belated “revelations.” There are two realities. The first one is our perception of reality from the media which tell us about negotiations, deals, elections and their recognition or just the opposite, their repudiation. The second one is the main players’ interests. Everything is already settled and divided there, moreover, everything is already sold. Yet there is one other reality: the reality of Putin’s imperial mind. And this reality, just like the Russian roulette, can fire at the most unexpected moment for the players.

What does the president need to do to regain the trust? I remember a slogan an old lady held at a rally reading “Porokh, blow them to hell!” In terms of diplomacy, the enemy has made all imaginable mistakes. And the president, who delivered the abovementioned speech, has no other option but be resolute. Radically resolute. No talking. No bargaining.