UPDATE: Zelenskyy Just Called Krasnov and told him “No!” on Donbass
‘We Do Not Want to Give up Our Donbas’ – Zelensky Holds Firm in Negotiations
“Neither de jure nor de facto” the Ukrainian president told his domestic press corp about ceding land, in a WhatsApp chat after meeting with Merz and speaking with Trump on the phone.
www.kyivpost.com/...
This week brings much frenzied news of Krasnov’s peace negotiating team trying to arm wrestle President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine into giving up Donbas to Russia in exchange for the promise of a barely coherent set of “security guarantees”.
Messrs. Zelenskyy and Merz(who hosted the meeting in Berlin, Germany) must have just chuckled to themselves and perhaps in private muttered … “such rank amateurs”. But such imagined levities aside, there’s no way Zelenskyy can give all of Donbas to Russia. In fact I will contend that it is personally and politically a non-starter for Zelenskyy and the majority of Ukrainians.
Just as Putin imagines Donbas to be the soul of greater Rossiya (Россия), it is even more so for the Ukrainians. Even under the cowardly and wanton daily Russian aerial bombardment of their cities and homes, a recent poll conducted by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) found that 75% of Ukrainians reject a peace plan requiring the withdrawal of Ukrainian forces from Donbas, especially if it includes military restrictions and lacks concrete security guarantees:
75% of Ukrainians reject peace plan requiring withdrawal from Donbas, poll finds
A strong majority of Ukrainians — 75% — rejected a proposed peace plan that would involve the withdrawal of Ukrainian forces from Donbas, military restrictions, and no concrete security guarantees, according to a new public opinion poll by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS), published on Dec. 15.
Sixty-three percent of the 547 adults surveyed nationwide — a slight increase from 62% in September this year — said they were ready to endure the war "as long as necessary."
kyivindependent.com/...
The story of a dauntless young man whose call sign and nom de guerre has been anglicized to “Trump” and who took up arms to defend Ukraine, his country, explains why in an interview from the battle front.
His tan beret and insignia denotes that he’s now a member of the recently formed elite Directorate of Assault Forces led by Colonel Valentyn Manko which includes separate specialized assault regiments (OShP), directly under the personal command of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi. They operate as "fire brigades" tasked with eliminating breaches in the front line and restoring lost positions during counterattacks. Some critics of the Commander-in-Chief call them “Syrskyi’s Private Army” or “Syrskyi’s Wolves”. I recently posted a diary about them here:
ADAPTIVE INDOMITABLE UKRAINE. Syrskyi's "Wolves"... Valentyn Manko and his Special Assault Troops
The interview is a bit long. But it gets at the soul of why the young as well as older Ukrainians are fighting so hard. It is powerful and heart-felt. Please kindly read on. THANK YOU so very much for doing so(the emphasis on the excerpted interview questions are mine):
If you met Donald Trump in person, what are some things you'd say to him?
- I wouldn't talk to him. I would spit in his eyes, even though he's a "namesake".
- And if you could influence the diplomatic course of the negotiations?
- I wouldn't agree to these 28 points: surrender Donbas, divide the Zhaporizhzhia nuclear power plant... And then what is the point of all those hundreds of thousands lives lost? The flower of the nation that laid down their lives there. How will you look into the eyes of their children? Wives? Mothers? This would be disrespect for their feat. And how many guys remained lying there, those who were not able to be evacuated because those who went to bring them in also died? Some right decision must be made. What decision? I don’t know…
If I begin thinking about losing motivation – that’s it, I’m screwed. When in the army, you can’t think about it. You’re looking for the positive side in the situation that exists. As Andriy Biletsky[civilian founder of the Azov Battalion and now Brigadier General commanding the 3rd Army Corps of Ukraine] once said, this is not about the control over the Donetsk region, geopolitical alignments, the ambitions of some politicians, and so on, but about the survival of the entire country. And no matter what we think, if we lose the country, we will be guests anywhere. This is our home, our land, we simply have no other. You can leave it, emigrate from it and so on, but you will always be someone who lives in someone else’s home. And I cannot but agree. If you don’t want to fight the enemy for a neighbor who has been fighting at home sitting on the sofa for the fourth year now, then fight for your children, for your nephews. I don’t have any children yet, but I have two beautiful goddaughters, Zlatoslava and Elmira, and a niece, Polina. I’m fighting here for them to have a peaceful life, without war. For them to live in a free state, speak Ukrainian, and learn Ukrainian history. I don’t want the war, which is now eating up everything in the east and northeast, to climb over the Dnieper and reach us here. I’m fighting for my wife, so that she can sleep peacefully at home, without worries. I’m fighting for my mother. For my fallen comrades…
www.ukrinform.net/...
Krasnov and his effete minions may see the Donbas as just another real estate deal but to ADAPTIVE INDOMITABLE UKRAINE, it means the very soul of their identity, their nation and its survival. No way they give up Donbas to Putin … come what may. They’d rather keep fighting on.
If Putin wants Donbas, the Lacedaemonian Spartans of antiquity have a laconic response in their Doric Greek to that bit of fanciful Russian delusion … molon Labe … “come and get them”(if you dare).
SLAVA UKRAINI ! PEREMOHA(Victory) !!
