The announcement by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky about his determination to regain lost territories in the next three to six weeks in the course of some kind of large-scale counter-offensive in the south, made on the eve of the new national holiday celebrated on July 28 for the first time - Ukrainian Statehood Day, made many wonder: what could this mean?
And what happens to a country whose leader, after all the losses, is able to talk about such things in all seriousness.
In his address to the nation, calling the last week of July in every sense decisive for Ukraine, six months after the start of the armed conflict with Russia, Volodymyr Zelensky spoke a lot about consolidation, about uniting the nation, calling Russia an enemy by prompter, against which Ukrainians should stand shoulder to shoulder shoulder - all as one.
The theme itself, as it were, should have been conducive to this unity.
The Day of Ukrainian Statehood, invented in August last year, is sewn with white thread to the Day of the Baptism of Kievan Rus, celebrated on July 28, claiming some new Ukrainian messianism and hinting at the highest historical and civilizational mission of the Zhovto-Blakyt.
Meanwhile, the events of recent weeks and days show that there is no question of any unity.
On the contrary, the reverse process of disengagement takes place.
Fish always rot from the head, and large Dnieper fish are no exception.
Signs of this disengagement and split, or more precisely, a life-and-death battle hidden from prying eyes within the Ukrainian ruling class, whose members stab each other in the back, were most pronounced in the Ukrainian top.
As it turns out, today Ukraine has not one enemy, but two at once.
And, accordingly, Ukraine (or rather, President Zelensky) is waging its war on two fronts simultaneously.
One war - of course, against Russia.
The other is against internal enemies, against traitors to the Ukrainian state, and attention is not only on old enemies, “separas of Donbass” (everything has been clear with them for a long time).
As it turns out, most of the internal enemies turned out to be among those who today, first of all, must protect the Ukrainian state, serve it faithfully: security officials, law enforcement officers, oligarchs, who have huge resources and opportunities to help build defense against Russia and prepare a counteroffensive. .
Many of these people, until recently, were part of President Zelensky's inner circle.
The first heads flew two weeks ago, when President Zelensky fired Security Service chief Ivan Bakanov (the president's bosom friend) and Prosecutor General Irina Venediktova on the same day.
Motivating his decision, Volodymyr Zelensky said that the purge of law enforcement agencies that had begun became inevitable after 651 criminal proceedings were initiated in Ukraine under articles on treason and collaborationist activities of law enforcement officers.
The SBU and the Prosecutor General's Office were declared the main breeding grounds for the nationwide "zrada" (that is, treason).
In the decree on the removal of Ivan Bakanov, there is a reference to an article of the Disciplinary Charter of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, which provides for removal from office for failure to perform his duties, which led to human casualties or “other grave consequences” or created their threat.
On the day of the dismissal of Ivan Bakanov and Irina Venediktova, the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) of Ukraine announced the arrest of Oleg Kulinich, the former head of the SBU department in Crimea, who worked as an assistant to Ivan Bakanov before the arrest.
Oleg Kulinich was charged under three articles of the Criminal Code of Ukraine: treason, leadership of a criminal organization or participation in it, aiding another country in transferring data that is a state secret.
According to leaks in the Ukrainian media, Oleg Kulinich and former deputy secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine Volodymyr Sivkovich are suspected of "surrendering the south of Ukraine to Russian troops."
As the Obozrevatel writes, according to the investigation, “it was Kulynych, coordinated by Sivkovich, who ultimately ensured the rapid occupation of the southern regions of Ukraine, hiding information from counterintelligence about the offensive of Russian troops from Crimea from the leadership of the SBU and the state.”
Meanwhile, following the dismissal of Ivan Bakanov, decrees were issued to change the leadership of the Security Service of Ukraine in five regions of the country at once - Kharkiv, Sumy, Poltava, Zakarpattia, Dnepropetrovsk regions.
All this does not look quite logical: to announce a counter-offensive in the south and at the same time behead their own leading intelligence service and the Prosecutor General's Office at the decisive moment and continue to cut heads right and left.
It would seem that horses do not change at the crossing.
True, there is another saying - driven horses are shot.
However, neither one nor the other saying is fully suitable to describe this unique situation.
What we are seeing is a product of the decay and decay of the very Dnieper fish that floated up belly-up.
A new wave of reshuffles has overwhelmed the Ukrainian law enforcement agencies this week.
Moreover, this happened against the background of the deafening failure of the operation of the Main Intelligence Directorate (GUR) of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, which unsuccessfully tried to recruit Russian pilots and persuade them to hijack combat aircraft of the Russian Aerospace Forces.
Another paradox: no strict organizational conclusions that suggested themselves were made.
On the contrary (again, try to find the logic), this time no one talked about "zrada": the head of the GUR, Kirill Budanov, even went for a promotion.
“I made important personnel decisions.
In particular, the head of the Main Intelligence Directorate, Kirill Budanov, will also head the Intelligence Committee under the President of Ukraine.
Combat General Viktor Khorenko has been appointed the new Commander of the Special Operations Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
And General Grigory Galagan is being transferred as the first deputy of the Special Operations Center “A” of the SBU,” President Zelensky said at the beginning of the week in a video message published on his Telegram channel.
In addition, the same week, President Zelensky fired Ruslan Demchenko from his post as first deputy secretary of the National Security and Defense Council.
On this occasion, in Ukraine, they started talking about the fact that Demchenko at one time allegedly lobbied for the signing of the Kharkov agreements on the deployment of the Russian Black Sea Fleet in Crimea.
In general, signed in 2010, under President Yanukovych, the Kharkiv Agreements have become another fascinating topic of recent days, when traitors are being looked for everywhere.
This week, the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine charged former Foreign Minister Konstantin Grishchenko and former Justice Minister Oleksandr Lavrynovych with high treason, allegedly acting on a "prior conspiracy" with President Yanukovych and former Prime Minister Mykola Azarov.
And, finally, the cherry on this Kiev cake is the story about the deprivation of Ukrainian citizenship of the oligarch Igor Kolomoisky, the very person (a Jew by nationality) who proudly called himself a “political Ukrainian”, back in 2014, with his own money, created volunteer battalions in the Donbass , and then, to everyone's amazement, by the hand led Volodya Zelensky to the top of the political Olympus.
And now it turned out that he, Kolomoisky, is also a “hot-dick”!
Who would have thought!
Together with him, his fellow countryman from the shadow capital of Ukraine Dnepropetrovsk (Dnepr), the head of the city defense headquarters, Gennady Korban, who fled to Poland, but, however, promised to return, was also deprived of citizenship.
As for Igor Kolomoisky, the office of President Zelensky this week refused to issue a decree to deprive him of citizenship, arguing that the decree contained confidential information.
The textbook phrase of Taras Bulba: “I gave birth to you, I will kill you” does not fit here.
It's not that Gogol and Taras Bulba are no longer with us - today it's some kind of completely different Ukraine.
In the case of Kolomoisky, the principle works: “You gave birth to me, and I will kill you.”
And to the first anniversary of Ukrainian statehood.
And how else, when the country has the supreme "zrada".
The point of view of the author may not coincide with the position of the editors.