Moscow – On June 11th, a meeting under the slogan “We stand for Donbas” is being gathered in Moscow. According to the organisers of the meeting, the goal is to “express support to the brotherly people of Novorossiya, the citizens of the newly-created PRD and PRL and all Russians in Ukraine.” It is expected that the meeting will be attended by the leadership of the so-called People’s Republics of Donetsk and Luhansk. Meanwhile the majority of Russians supports the separatists in the East of Ukraine. And experts conclude: the Kremlin’s aim is not the annex of Donbas following the Crimean scenario, but the support of chaos in this Ukrainian region.
Sociologists of “Levada-Centre” connected a survey to find out the Russians’ attitude towards the events in Donbas. The respondents practically have no doubt what side of the conflict the Russian government is on. 49% of the Russians agree that the Kremlin supports the pro-Russian powers in the southeast of Ukraine. More than half of the respondents (59%) consider such actions correct.
However, the participants of the survey do not want the accession of the self-proclaimed republics to Russia. This was stated by the deputy head of “Levada-Centre” Alexey Grazhdankin to Radio Svoboda.
“Russians would not want such a turn of events. They would like for these self-declared republics to be independent states or be part of Ukraine. There is no strive to accept them as part of Russia,” noted Alexey Grazhdankin.
The worse it gets, the better it is?
Experts agree with the sociologists that regular Russians share the position of the Kremlin, which also does not want to accept Donbas following the Crimean scenario. However the chaos and anarchy which reign now in this Ukrainian region find support among the Russian leadership, concludes the deputy editor-in-chief of “Yezhednevniy Journal” Oleksandr Goltz.
“To my mind, the Kremlin’s goal (and so far there are no grounds to think that this is not the case) lies in supporting maximally long-term chaos in Donetsk and Luhansk and wherever possible in Ukraine,” said Oleksandr Goltz.
On Tuesday President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko gave the order to open humanitarian corridors in the East of the country, this way repeating one of the these of his inauguration speech. The leaders of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk republics doubt that this order will be carried out.
Independent separatism
However Poroshenko insists on peaceful dialogue with Donbas. The leaders of the so-called “republics” are accustomed to using a different language, note the experts. Military expert Oleksandr Goltz thinks that the reason for the defeat of the Ukrainian army in the East is not in the lack of ability.
“The modern army is aimed to achieve victory and cannot achieve victory against semi-military formations which act with their own specific methods, every time creating a live shield of women and children. For this it is not entirely necessary to put them in the front. It is sufficient to hide in the quarters of the city where women and children are located,” noted the military expert.
According to Oleksandr Goltz, neither the Ukrainian nor the Russian government will be able to deal with the leaders of the separatists. Russia has provided them with weapons, but it is unlikely to be able to take them away now and somehow influence the self-declared leaders.
Source: Radio Svoboda
Translated by Mariya Shcherbinina
