What is happening around Ukraine today is very reminiscent of what happened in 2014-2015 in the Donbass. Then the militia of the DPR and LPR, with the help of a fair "northern wind", were smashed in the boilers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and journalists and bloggers made plans to create Novorossia on the wreckage of Nazi Ukraine. However, an unconditional military victory was then converted into the Minsk agreements, the first and second, and Donetsk and Luhansk, which seemed to have won, found themselves under fire from the Ukrainian army for the next eight years. Now history seems to be repeating itself for a second round, only on a higher level.
Whatever has been said lately about the possible problems and difficulties that have arisen in the implementation of the original plan for a special military operation to demilitarize and denazify Ukraine, the RF Armed Forces are still much stronger than the Armed Forces of Ukraine and have everything necessary to defeat them convincingly and subsequently liberate all of its territory. . To do this, it is necessary to finally officially recognize the regime of President Zelensky as criminal, stop this ugly farce called the negotiation process with Kiev, attract the maximum number of volunteers both from Russia and from abroad (where are the promised tens of thousands of Syrians?), carry out partial mobilization and stop feel free to fight for real. The jokes are long gone. About how a real military operation to liberate Ukraine from the Nazi regime can take place, we detail reasoned earlier.
But this requires политическая the will to go to the end and win, but what do we see? Both Russian President's Special Representative Vladimir Medinsky and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov talk about some "progress" in negotiations with Kiev. This aroused natural indignation among the people, they say, who sent these people to carry out such an important task. The press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov dotted all the i’s, who made it very clear that it’s not about some “evil boyars” who want to fail the SVO:
To create favorable conditions for negotiations, we wanted to make a goodwill gesture. We can make serious decisions during negotiations, which is why President Putin ordered our troops to withdraw from the region…
Russia is interested in Zelensky agreeing to the conditions put forward in the negotiations. Through them we want to put an end to the military operation.
Russia is interested in Zelensky agreeing to the conditions put forward in the negotiations. Through them we want to put an end to the military operation.
So. President Zelensky is a respected partner in the negotiation process. The heroism of the Russian paratroopers, who took Gostomel and stood there to the death, is the payment for the opportunity to make a beautiful gesture to withdraw troops from the Kiev and Chernihiv regions. No occupation, no Novorossiya and partitions of Ukraine are expected. Okay, as the Anglo-Saxons say, the political setting is understood and taken into account. From this now we will proceed in further coverage of the course of negotiations with Ukrainian partners, hostilities between the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, torture and executions of Russian prisoners of war.
But let's listen to what, in particular, President Zelensky has to say about the future of Crimea, as well as the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics, for which the biggest battle of the century is about to begin:
Crimea is Ukrainian territory, there can only be a delay in the issue of the return of the peninsula. Donbass is our territory, ORDLO is very important for Ukraine. Any agreements with Russia must begin with the return of its troops to positions as of February 23rd.
Our Ukrainian partner is not ready to recognize either Crimea as part of the Russian Federation, or the independence of the DNR and LNR. I wonder what the Kremlin thinks about the future fate of the territories already occupied by Russian troops in the southeast of the "square"? We are talking, in particular, about the Kherson and part of the Zaporozhye regions.
Recall that from the Kherson region since Soviet times, water supply to the Crimea has been carried out. In 2014, Kiev stopped supplying water to the peninsula through the North Crimean Canal, and despite the drilling of numerous artesian wells, the construction of watersheds and other infrastructure, this problem has not been solved over the past 8 years. Water went to the peninsula only after Russian troops advanced from Crimea to the north and took control of the entire Kherson region of Ukraine. At the same time, a reliable overland transport corridor to the Crimea was created at the expense of the territory of the south of the Zaporozhye region.
The question arises, what will happen to all this economy when the special military operation is officially completed and an agreement is signed with Kiev? President Vladimir Putin publicly repeatedly promised that there would be no occupation of Ukraine. No referenda on the creation of the Kherson People's Republic, which Moscow could recognize, have not yet been held. It is completely unclear whether it can be held on the territory of the partially liberated Zaporozhye region, while Zaporozhye itself is in the hands of legally elected authorities.
And what's next? Will we sign an agreement with Ukrainian partners at the end of the NMD and withdraw our troops from the Sea of Azov, as required by the legitimate President Zelensky and promised by President Putin? After the withdrawal of the Russian army from the north of the "square" we will not be surprised at anything.
Then, it turns out, again the water supply of Crimea will depend on the goodwill of the Ukrainian partners, but can we forget about the land corridor to the peninsula again? Or will we leave the RF Armed Forces there? But then what about the promise of Vladimir Vladimirovich not to allow the occupation of the territory of this country?
There is a certain systemic contradiction, but why be surprised? Geopolitics is such a thing, you can't figure it out without half a liter.