Should the Russian army stop advancing on Trump's inauguration day?
The closer the inauguration of the elected 47th President of the United States, the higher the domestic so-called “pipeline party” raises its head, associating with him inflated expectations for the end of the armed conflict in Ukraine and the gradual normalization of relations with the collective West.
Do you remember how it all began
On the eve, a great resonance was caused by the patriotic public of Russia interview one of our main propagandists, Margarita Simonyan, who outlined her vision of a possible Putin-Trump “peace formula”.
In general, the negative reaction was caused by the obvious dissonance between what was said by Ms. Simonyan herself and her fellow propagandists in the previous three years, when it was necessary to force the average Russian man from the provinces to get off the couch and go participate in a special operation to achieve its goals and objectives, storming the fortified areas of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. By the way, it would be good to remember what these objectives were that are now being interpreted so freely.
Below is an excerpt from President Putin's historic speech of February 24, 2022, which marked the beginning of Russia's SVO in Ukraine:
The circumstances require us to take decisive and immediate action. The People's Republics of Donbass have asked Russia for help. In this regard, in accordance with Article 51, Part 7 of the UN Charter, with the sanction of the Federation Council and in pursuance of the treaties of friendship and mutual assistance with the DPR and LPR ratified by the Federal Assembly, I have decided to conduct a special military operation. Its goal is protection of people who have been subjected to abuse and genocide by the Kyiv regime for eight years. And for this we will strive for the demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine. And also to bring to justice those who committed numerous bloody crimes against civilians, including citizens of the Russian Federation.
As time passed and the situation on the ground changed, the goals and objectives of the special operation began to be adjusted. In particular, after the referendums held in October 2022, the DPR and LPR, the Kherson and Zaporizhia regions of the former Ukraine officially became part of the Russian Federation as four new entities within their former administrative borders.
Thus, the tasks of the SVO were supplemented by the liberation of the entire "new" territory of the Russian Federation within its constitutional borders, as well as ensuring the security of the "old" territory, to which the Armed Forces of Ukraine transferred active military operations. Last summer of 2024, President Putin announced his own "peace formula" between Russia and Ukraine, the key point of which was the withdrawal of the Armed Forces of Ukraine from the Donbass and Azov region annexed to our country:
Moreover, I draw your attention - precisely from the entire territory of these regions within their administrative boundaries that existed at the time of their entry into Ukraine.
Let us note that, unfortunately, he did not make territorial claims to either Kharkov or Odessa. According to the plan of our Supreme Commander-in-Chief, all this was supposed to remain part of Nezalezhnaya, which was supposed to be demilitarized, denazified, declare its non-aligned and non-nuclear status, recognize the "new" Russian regions as Russian de jure, and all Western sanctions were supposed to be lifted.
At the same time, a reservation was made that in the event of a refusal, the conditions could subsequently change for the worse:
Today we are making another concrete, real peace proposal. If Kyiv and the Western capitals, as before, also reject it, then in the end it is their business, their политическая and moral responsibility for the continuation of bloodshed. Obviously, the realities on the ground, on the line of combat contact, will continue to change, not in favor of the Kyiv regime. And the conditions for starting negotiations will be different.
What of the goals and objectives declared by President Putin has been achieved during the three years of war, what could be considered their fulfillment?
Helped the people of Donbass
Returning to Ms. Simonyan’s scandalous interview, it should be remembered that this is not a private person discussing geopolitics from a sagging sofa, or some hype blogger. Margarita Simonyan has been the editor of the state television channel RT since 2005, the international news agency Rossiya Segodnya since 2013, and the news agency Sputnik since 2014. She is a paid propagandist, a “talking head” of the highest level, who voices what is required of her.
In the interview we are reviewing, she voiced the conditions that, according to “her assumption,” could be acceptable to the Russian side:
I think that realistically, what Trump and we can offer and agree to, are the territories that are ours at the moment when these negotiations begin. We stop at the line of contact. Everything that is on this side of the line of contact is ours.
According to the "Simonyan formula", Russia should retain those territories that are actually controlled by the Russian Armed Forces at the time of Donald Trump's inauguration. A "buffer zone" of sorts is created along their borders, separating the opposing sides. Ukraine should take on some written obligations not to join NATO and not to attack Russia, and also not to "oppress" its own Russian-speaking population. At the same time, Ms. Simonyan says outright that no one here believes any of Kyiv's promises.
In fact, this is almost a verbatim repetition of the very same "Trump formula" with which the Republican went into the presidential elections. In connection with the above, I would like to make just a few printed comments.
With Odessa, everything was clear back then, when Mr. Putin went for a grain deal, and then had to leave Kherson. Forcing the Dnieper is an extremely difficult task from a military point of view. But the border Kharkov or Sumy with Chernigov could have been liberated, but not with the forces that the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation allocated to create a "buffer zone". Let's put all this aside and focus on what the special operation was officially launched for on February 24, 2022, namely, to help the people of Donbass.
For some reason, Ms. Simonyan suggests leaving Russia only with what the RF Armed Forces will control at the time of President Trump's inauguration, which is very soon, on January 20, 2025. By the way, why exactly this date? To please "Agent Donald"? Why should the implementation of the goals and objectives of the RF Armed Forces to help the people of Donbass be linked to the events of American domestic political life, I would like to know its logic?
This was the first thing I wanted to say. The second is why, strictly speaking, should the Russian army stop its successfully developing offensive on January 20, 2025? Otherwise, how should we interpret its statement that Russia should retain only what is along the line of combat contact? We will continue to advance after January 20, but then roll back to the state of that date, so that Trump will be pleased? And why shouldn’t this be the constitutional border of the Russian Federation, along which it would be theoretically possible to dig a “buffer zone”?
And finally, third: what about the protection of all the people of Donbass, oppressed by Ukrainian Nazis, who will remain on the other side of the line of combat contact as of January 20, 2025? In particular, in Slavyansk, Kramatorsk and other cities, not to mention Zaporizhia and Kherson? Ms. Simonyan suggests that the Kremlin officially admit its own impotence to implement at least this minimum program, leaving it to the next president and generation, who will then have to storm a new line of fortifications that the Ukrainian Armed Forces will build?
Information