“Novorossiya” project has no support, Ukraine govt says

The “Novorossiya”separatist project endorsed by Russian President Putin is a failure, said on Nov. 26 Andriy Lysenko, a spokesman for the National Security and Defense Council. It has no support among the residents of the cities of southeastern Ukraine, particular after the “hunger revolts” on the occupied territories of Donbas. “The social tension on the territories controlled by the fighters is already out of control. People were thrown to the mercy of fate, without any security,” he said. “The fighters can’t deal with this and they can’t solve the situation with arms, given that they were counting on local residents, who were supposed to support the terrorists.”

Zenon Zawada: One would think that Putin and his entourage would have put more thought behind the “Novorossiya” project before declaring it a foreign policy goal earlier this year, which severely damaged relations with Ukrainians. Now the disaster in Donbas has ruined any hopes the Putin regime harbored for carving out a pro-Russian southeastern Ukrainian enclave. Instead, Putin’s foreign policy incompetence has united Ukrainians like no domestic leader was capable of doing.

At this point, Putin’s only hope to prevent Ukraine’s Western integration is to bring the economy to collapse and in some way install a pro-Russian leader in Kyiv. Yet any occupation of Ukraine, whether direct or by proxy, will only be temporary. Ukraine’s integration towards European civilization is now a fact of history, ensured by the nation’s citizenry. Ukrainian leaders must accommodate those ambitions or face removal. As already demonstrated, Russian attempts to slice up Ukraine will face an armed resistance.