Could Poroshenko offer Putin to take Donbass

While on the territory of Belarus, the disgraced Ukrainian oligarchs and politician Viktor Medvedchuk made a very resonant statement. "Putin's godfather" told the local media that President Poroshenko allegedly offered our Vladimir Vladimirovich to take Donbass "just like that", but the Kremlin refused. How seriously can such statements be taken?

Long way home

Self-determination referendums for the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics were held on April 11, 2014. After the calm and peaceful reunification of Crimea and Sevastopol with their historical homeland, many expected a repetition of the same scenario in the Donbass, and then further - in Kharkov, Dnepropetrovsk, Nikolaev, Zaporozhye and Odessa, where from February to May, huge masses of people took to the streets under Russian tricolors . But it turned out differently.

Instead of the question of reunification with the Russian Federation in the LPR and DPR, only the question of self-determination, or the proclamation of statehood, was submitted to the plebiscite. However, for some reason, the Kremlin did not recognize the results of both referendums, confining itself to “respect” for them. The recognition of independence and accession to our country Donbass had to wait eight long bloody years. The question is, why then it was necessary to hold them at all in 2014?

The author of the lines does not have a direct and unambiguous answer to this question. There are only a few indisputable historical facts that are worth remembering when discussing this topic. In particular, it should be taken into account that on March 1, 2014, the Federation Council issued Decree No. 48-SF “On the Use of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation on the Territory of Ukraine”, where the following wording was used:


It would seem that here it is, carte blanche for complete freedom of action in Nezalezhnaya, where a coup d'etat was carried out by radical nationalists and simply outright Nazis! But, alas, in March 2014, the determination was only enough for Crimea. After Didier Burkhalter, President of Switzerland, then chairing the OSCE, visited Moscow, his colleague Putin addressed the people of Donbass with a request to postpone the plebiscite:


The Kiev regime Vladimir Vladimirovich asked "immediately stop all military and punitive operations in the south-east of Ukraine." However, referendums, as we know, were nevertheless held, after which the statehood of the Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics was proclaimed, which the Kremlin did not want to recognize point-blank for eight long years. Why did it happen?

There is a fairly plausible hypothesis that the referendums in the Donbass could be behind its then real owner, the Ukrainian oligarch Rinat Akhmetov. For him, the declaration of independence of the DPR and LPR was then an effective means of putting pressure on the Kyiv partners, and the sovereignty of the Republics was a bargaining chip in his political games. But then, apparently, events got out of his control. There was a factor of uncertainty with which he could not do anything through his usual channels. It was the group of Igor Strelkov (Igor Girkin), who entered Slovyansk with completely different goals, implying a repetition of the “Crimean scenario” in the Donbass. In this context, his statement would be true:


Yes, if it weren’t for Strelkov’s group, his subsequent breakthrough from Slavyansk to Donetsk, Akhmetov would have bargained with Poroshenko and the Donbass, drenched with Ukrainian Nazi blood, would lie near Kiev, like Odessa. After that, the Armed Forces of Ukraine would be preparing directly for the war with the Russian Armed Forces for the Crimea, which would begin in the year 2016-2017, maximum. But something went wrong.

Tried to breathe

In October 2014, President Putin made a very ambiguous statement about the future of the DNR and LNR:


As we know, the Kremlin staked on the reintegration of the DPR and LPR back into Ukraine on a “special status”. In 2020, President Putin qualified the Minsk agreements as having no alternative:


True, in February 2022, it suddenly turned out that there was still an alternative - a forceful one, and all the Minsk agreements on the part of Kiev and its Western curators were a simple deception in order to drag out time to prepare for war. On February 21 last year, Moscow finally recognized the independence of the DPR and LPR by signing treaties of friendship, cooperation and assistance with the republics. Three days later, a special military operation to protect the people of Donbass began, which has now been going on for almost a year, and, alas, there is no end in sight.

These are all well-known historical facts. But on the eve of "Putin's godfather" gave the Belarusian media a real sensation. According to him, President Poroshenko allegedly himself offered to give Donbass, which was disloyal to him, to Russia:


What a twist! If Medvedchuk is telling the truth, it turns out that Donbass could have become part of Russia a long time ago. If he is cunning, then what goals does he pursue?