Elena Davlikanova
The President of Ukraine is not the President of Russia. That’s more than just a truism — it cuts to the heart of what makes a young democracy different from a despotic regime.
It also explains why President Zelenskyy has far more limited options than the Kremlin when negotiating a peace settlement or an armistice. While he has already made it clear that, as head of state, he will not yield to Putin’s extravagant demands, the international pressure remains high. His rejection of the idea is not simply because he regards the Kremlin’s demands as tantamount to capitulation; Putin may be able to order his army to pull back, and is certainly able to suppress any popular dissident this might cause, but for Ukraine, it’s very different.
Popular consent is a central issue for Ukraine’s government. Three-quarters of Ukrainians reject Russia’s maximalist demand that they surrender currently unoccupied land for peace, polls show. Having suffered huge casualties — perhaps approaching half a million dead and seriously wounded — Ukraine’s government has to consider not just the approach of Russia, the US, and its European allies, but also its own people.
There is another consideration barely mentioned in the Western debate about Ukraine and its options, and that’s the view of the army. With as many as a million (mostly) men under arms, the Ukrainian Armed Forces are a critical and powerful constituency. It is their blood that has been shed and their friends who have been killed and maimed. It is UAF units that would have to withdraw from the fortress cities of the Donbas to less favorable ground.
So it was notable when Ukraine’s drone commander, the outspoken Colonel Vadym “Magyar” Brovdi, published a video statement warning of the consequences of such a move. He argued that the war will not end this year, and that Ukrainian forces are positioned to force Russia into negotiations on Kyiv’s terms later on. His words were ominous — any deal regarded as unfair by the military may trigger a backlash, he said. “No one in the world could bend an army of a million.”
No comments:
Post a Comment