6 June 2014
Russian President Vladimir Putin met with French President Francois Hollande for an hour and a half on June 5, after which no statement was released. After meeting with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called for a cease-fire and the start of a dialogue between Kyiv and the Donetsk and Luhansk terrorists. He voiced the concerns of the leaders of the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics. They reject the means by which the previous government was removed, he said, as reported by the BBC news service. “They want to defend their culture; celebrate their holidays, not the anniversary of Shukhevych and Bandera (leaders of the 20th century Ukrainian liberation movement who were demonized by Soviet propaganda); and speak their language,” he said. “They want local governance for the regions in which they live and to elect their government.”
Zenon Zawada: Most educated residents of Ukraine would view Lavrov’s defense of the Donetsk and Luhansk terrorists as ridiculous. It’s worth pointing out that while Moscow has been supplying the Ukrainian terrorists with fighters and sophisticated weapons, the fighters of the EuroMaidan had at their disposal only makeshift clubs or in the most extreme case, their own hunting rifles, with no aid from the West. As for Lavrov’s arguments: the residents of southeastern Ukraine have always been unrestricted in their ability to educate their children, interact with state officials, hold government hearings and conduct business in Russian. Instead, it’s Ukrainian speakers who are second-class citizens in these regions. The Ukrainian government continues to commemorate Soviet holidays and never had the intention of making national holidays out of the World War II anti-Soviet insurgent leaders. Meanwhile, the interim government has already declared its intention to widen the authority of local governments.
Lavrov’s rhetoric contradicts the actions of the Russian government as it continues to fuel the war with fighters and firearms. It’s aimed at inflaming ethno-linguistic divides that would otherwise be latent in Ukraine. Unfortunately, those residents of the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts that are vulnerable to the Russian rhetoric have become hostage to the Russian foreign policy of managed chaos in Ukraine, which is intended to ruin the economy and prevent integration into the European Union. The Kremlin is pursuing this policy because a democratic, prosperous Ukraine would undermine the authoritarian kleptocracy created by Putin. The Donetsk and Luhansk terrorists are merely pawns in the Kremlin’s game, which has become deadly as it has already taken the lives of 188 Ukrainian citizens (since Russia’s March invasion of Crimea). It’s critical for the Ukrainian government to contain the Russian offensive to the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts and prevent it from spreading west. We anticipate intense measures from President-elect Petro Poroshenko in achieving that goal. He also needs to end the fighting in the Donbas region by the summer’s end.