On Tuesday, April 6, 2021, the first President of independent Ukraine (1991-1994) Leonid Kravchuk suggested that the talks about the future of Ukrainian-Russian war should be moved from Belarus to Poland. Because of recent actions by both Presidents Lukashenka and Putin, Minsk cannot be regarded as an objective peace broker between Ukraine and Russia. During an interview with Vasyl Holovanov for the Ukraine 24 TV, 87-year-old former President announced that if the Russians come, he will defend Ukraine weapon-in-hand. He stated that his weapons are ready, and he will join his security detail shooting to kill if any Russian shows up around his residence.
He added that Putin is risking his presidency by pushing Ukraine too far. According to Kravchuk, he remembers how much the same way Russian presidents Nikita Khrushchev and Mikhail Gorbachev were challenging the world only to see their power and the Russian state crumble around them.
In the same program, a renowned Ukrainian journalist, Dmitry Illich Gordon said that he was concerned with the recent increase of anti-Ukrainian propaganda in Russian news. He reported that Russians are pushing a story of a boy killed in Donbas who, according to them, was killed by Ukrainian special ops. When Gordon fact-checked the news, it turned out that the boy walked on a mine. The story is a typical Russian propaganda effort to dehumanize Ukrainians and present them as aggressors killing innocent children in Donbas. Gordon stated than only a week before he had been absolutely convinced that Russians would not attack Ukraine. With the latest propaganda frenzy, Gordon is not sure if Russians would not send tanks to defend innocent children in Donbas.
Soldiers of the Russian 4th Guards Tank Division (Source: Wikipedia)
Recent days show a worrisome amassing of Russian military equipment and soldiers at the Ukrainian borders both in Crimea and Donbas regions. A high-ranking Ukrainian military stated under condition of anonymity that Russians have been coordinating military activities with the insurgents in Donbas and will be ready for serious kinetic engagement with Ukraine in early April.
President Zelensky refused to join Minsk talks claiming that Belarus is under Russia’s control and lost the status of an objective mediator. Since 2014 Russian aggression, Minsk Protocol was a format to broker peace between Russia, Ukraine, Donetsk Peoples Republic (DPR) and Luhansk Peoples Republic (LPR). Minsk Protocol was brokered by Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). Up till today, Minsk Protocols have been continually violated by Russians and the rebels in Donbas.
It is in the interest of Russia to build distrust and resentment between Poles and Ukrainians. We should recall Polish-Ukrainian cooperation in 1918-1920 war for independence. In the process, Poland regained her independence and Ukraine fell short. Symon Vasylyovich Petliura, the Supreme Commander of the Ukrainian Army and the President of the Ukrainian People's Republic during Ukraine's short-lived sovereignty in 1918–1921, fought with the Poles against the Russians. After the war, Poland protected Petliura despite Russian demands to send him to Russia. Eventually, Petliura left Poland for a safe France where he was killed by the NKVD assassin. Although Russians killed Petliura, they were not able to kill the geopolitical reality that in order to protect their sovereignty, Poles and Ukrainians must work together.
It is critical that Polish Americans and Ukrainian Americans begin serious talks to understand the situation on the ground. The situation in Central Europe is too critical and too complicated to be left to those Americans who approach this region from the perspective of Russian studies. Let us not wait, be passive, and watch how our administration solves the challenges in Central Europe without our coordinated input. The western neighbor of Ukraine is Poland, not European Union. If Ukrainians want to base their risk assessment calculations on talks with French and Germans, they seem to forget that any serious help for Ukraine must go through Poland.
