To be honest, I have long ceased to understand what the speechwriters of Vladimir Zelensky are thinking, what effect they expect when preparing another speech for the president.
For the most part, his public speeches look like outbursts of human consciousness that have little connection with the reality in which he lives.
Incidentally, this, presumably, is one of the factors that led to the catastrophic drop in the rating of the head of state.
He talks about the wrong thing and at the wrong time, his appeals and proposals do not find a response, because people are worried about something completely different.
Zelensky recorded his last video message while at Feofania, a clinic where he is undergoing treatment for coronavirus.
It is addressed to the residents of Donbass.
Perhaps, only one thing was done correctly - referring to the rebellious territories, the president switched to Russian.
But everything he said looks like a meaningless play on words.
Zelensky said he was doing everything to end the war.
I believe that the population of the two republics will find it difficult to believe this statement.
The current truce has long ceased to be such.
Shelling from the Ukrainian side is carried out every day, people are dying on the line of contact again.
But the main semantic passage is an attempt to convince Donbass that its authorities are closing their beloved Ukraine from them.
“I would also like to appeal to our citizens, to our Ukrainians who are in the temporarily occupied territory.
You see for yourself - Ukraine is open for you.
In every sense of the word.
You know who is blocking the checkpoint on the other side.
Who divides us.
In every sense of the word.
I am sure that you not only see and know this, but also draw your own conclusions.
In every sense of the word, ”said the Ukrainian president.
According to him, Ukraine has opened all checkpoints in Donetsk and Lugansk regions.
And in the Luhansk region even two new ones appeared - in Happiness and Zolote.
“We have opened a new service center in Schastya, where people will be able to receive pensions, social benefits - a total of 88 administrative services.
In the same center there is a bank branch, post office, pharmacy, mother and child room.
Convenient, modern, comfortable, safe - that is, all the words that our citizens should have, especially in the temporarily occupied territories, when they hear the word "Ukraine", Zelensky said.
The only thing he forgot to mention was the reason why the authorities of the DPR and LPR decided to close the border.
Not completely, by the way: in each of the republics one checkpoint is open - in the village of Luganskaya and in Novotroitskiy.
The reason for the restrictions is elementary: Ukraine sets records for the number of cases of coronavirus.
Naturally, the percentage of infected people is quite high among those wishing to enter the territory of the republics.
The republican authorities made a decision with only one purpose: to provide their own citizens with protection from an extremely dangerous infection.
As for the statement that Ukraine is open to residents of Donbass "in every sense of the word," I would consider it necessary to quote the statements of the official directly responsible for the return of the rebellious territories to the Ukrainian state.
In early November, speaking on a TV channel owned by Petro Poroshenko, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for the Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories Aleksey Reznikov compared Donbass with a tumor: “The main thing for us is not to take it back - like a tumor with which we do not know what to do ...
But we understand that we have two options.
These are sick territories, mentally as well.
There is a complete resection option - amputation.
Or heal. "
This person is not expressing a personal point of view.
His position is a completely official view of things.
The official also said that he sees a way out in "restoring the Ukrainian mentality" in ORDLO.
And this is the key point.
For the Ukrainian nation, Donbass, long before the war, was a “sick territory,” as the minister put it.
And the "restoration of mentality" is a violent breakdown of the identity of the Russian-speaking Donbass, the imposition of completely alien cultural and historical stereotypes on it.
Actually, it was against this that the population of the former Donetsk and Lugansk regions opposed in 2014.
To protect their own home from the pogromists from Ukraine, their own spiritual order, history, heroes, language, people took up arms.
And since then, the situation has not changed.
They did not accept any "restoration of the Ukrainian mentality" at the beginning of the war, and they do not want to accept it now.
Therefore, the words about Ukraine open to them, which from time to time come from the lips of Ukrainian politicians, they perceive as stupidity that has nothing to do with their lives.
And there is also a wonderful bill №4327 "On amendments to some laws of Ukraine regarding the streamlining of issues related to prisoners of war and internees in a special period."
He assumes that after the reintegration of the CADLO, a large-scale purge will be carried out on their territory.
The security service of Ukraine will immediately detain and intern in special camps (as the bill says, forcibly resettling to certain places and rear camps for prisoners of war) all suspects in assisting separatism.
The resumption of the Nazi practice of keeping people whose guilt has not been proven in special camps is a good way to attract the sympathy of the Donbass residents.
These are the realities that define the face of today's Ukraine.
And Zelensky's video message was recorded in some parallel world, where there is no “sick mentality” of Donbass, where the idea of concentration camps is impossible even to imagine, in which a friendly and affectionate Ukraine opens its arms to its citizens living under occupation.
And Zelensky addresses all this desperate nonsense to the residents of the DPR and LPR.
Perhaps he and his speechwriters have something in mind.
But I suspect that their expectations are not destined to come true.
The author's point of view may not coincide with the position of the editorial board.