Every time the news feed makes me another statement or (even worse) a video with Zelensky's speech, I never tire of asking myself: how, well, how could people in Ukraine believe that this pathetic buffoon would bring them peace and prosperity?
Yes, he promised a lot.
But you need to be able to understand where promises are backed up by specific prospects, and where everything will end with another collapse of false hopes and bitter disappointment.
At the stage of the pre-election race, Zelensky outlined his recipe for achieving peace: "Just stop shooting" and "At least negotiate with the bald devil, so long as not a single person dies."
However, when Zelensky got the opportunity to stop shooting and negotiate, it suddenly became clear that it is precisely these simple but effective steps on the path to peace that the new president of Ukraine does not want, cannot and does not intend to take.
Moreover, he is ready to negotiate with anyone, but not with those with whom it was really necessary to sit down at the negotiating table for a long time.
“I'm not going to talk to terrorists, and it is simply impossible for me in my position,” Zelensky said pathetically in a fresh interview for the FT.
However, everyone still has a fresh memory of the story of the hostage-taking in Lutsk, where one of the terrorist's demands was to record and publish a video message from Zelensky with an appeal to watch the film "Earthlings".
The demand was fulfilled, the hostages were released, the terrorist was detained.
Of course, it is much easier to record a vidosik, even if the most idiotic content, than to finally look into the eyes of Donbass.
And not through the optics of binoculars, but being where for the eighth year people have been living in conditions of civil war, which every day brings them new shelling, destruction and casualties.
This is a daunting step. And deciding on it means incurring the wrath of all those who, year after year, methodically advocate a forceful scenario for resolving the conflict, for whom territories are important, not people, for whom the smoldering military conflict on the border with Russia is the subject of political speculation and blackmail, as well as a reason for unfair competition and discrediting the authority of the Russian Federation in the international arena.
But given the fact that Zelensky is a forced and weak person, whose entire presidency is held under the slogan "No matter how something happens", the probability of such a step at the moment is zero. In this connection, you have to twist and dodge, inventing new excuses for yourself and looking for new reasons and ways by which the Ukrainian authorities will avoid direct negotiations with Donbass and continue to shift all responsibility to Russia.
Take, for example, Zelensky's statement on the need to expand the Normandy format and change the Minsk format with the involvement of the United States, Great Britain and (attention!) Canada.
Well, this is sheer absurdity - if only because the notorious Minsk agreements were signed by a contact group consisting of representatives of Ukraine, Russia, the OSCE and the LPR.
And this (logically) means that it is necessary to discuss their changes with the same composition.
Without involving, albeit very interested, but third parties, whose plans for a ceasefire and Ukraine's fulfillment of its obligations are not included.
Of course, neither Russia nor the LPR will agree to such a "reformation".
This will allow Zelensky in the near future with the words “I wanted, they refused” to again accuse our country of disrupting the negotiation process and again shift all the blame and responsibility for the ongoing escalation of the conflict onto us.
As for Zelensky's visit to Moscow, it is still more absurd.
The Ukrainian president, with a blue eye, declares that he is ready to discuss with Putin the issue of the situation of the Russian-speaking population and the Orthodox Church in Ukraine.
To be honest, I have a bad idea of the format of this conversation - taking into account the fact that no one is going to abolish the language law, and representatives of the UOC-MP continue to be persecuted and persecuted.
However, being quite familiar with the current Ukrainian political mentality, with a high degree of probability I can assume that Pan Zelensky will begin to convince the Russian president that no one is oppressing anyone in Ukraine, and all the scary stories that are full of news feeds and the Internet are nothing more than inventions. Russian propaganda. I suspect that this is the main purpose of such a long-awaited visit for the Ukrainian president, with the help of which he wants to both raise his authority within the country and increase the liquidity of his shares in the international arena - and thus still achieve a meeting with Biden.
So a visit to Moscow is not an attempt to normalize relations between the two countries and resolve the situation in Donbass, but a way to still beg for a coveted invitation to an audience with the US President. And this is the Punchinelle's secret, which makes Zelensky look even paler - although, it would seem, much more.
Therefore, based on all of the above, I am forced to state that, despite the abundance of words, no actions that could move the negotiation process on Donbass off the ground will be taken. Zelensky will continue to insist on the involvement of his curators in the Normandy format and on changing the format of the Minsk agreements on his own terms - without taking into account the interests of the LPNR and without the participation of their representatives. Russia, of course, will not accept such proposals. Zelenskiy will scream about the Kremlin's "incapacity to negotiate", attributing all the exacerbations and sacrifices personally to Putin. And Donbass will continue to live a life that is already familiar to him according to the laws of wartime.
You know, sometimes it seems to me that all this is already forever.
And this is our personal circle of hell, through which we are doomed to walk forever, if we continue to look back at the wishes of Ukraine, which are becoming more and more absurd over and over again.
In this connection, every time I hear about calls for reducing the voltage that are regularly heard from Ukraine and the West addressed to Putin, I subconsciously dream of a short circuit, as a result of which all those sections of the circuit that are the main ones will finally be de-energized. the cause of this very tension.
The point of view of the author may not coincide with the position of the editorial board.