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Putin Orders Reality Check – No Ukrainians Left
on the Battlefield, No Sovereignty in Kiev
By
Yves Smith
June
28, 2023:
Information Clearing House
-- In late May Putin recently
referred to “that
territory known as Ukraine.”
Close observers took that as a statement of
intent, that Russia was planning to render
Ukraine into something other than a sovereign
state.
It
turns out that that is Russia’s present view of
Ukraine. As John Helmer explains below, both
Putin and the Foreign Ministry said that due to
Ukraine having repudiated and then terminated
the 1990 treaty with Russia and successor
treaties recognizing each other as sovereign
states, Ukraine is no longer sovereign, at least
with respect to Russia. And among other things,
that means there is no viable Ukraine-type
entity for Russia to sign a cessation of
hostilities pact, assuming Ukraine somehow were
able to slip the leash of its US and NATO
overlords.
In
other words, from Russia’s vantage, not only is
Ukraine de facto not sovereign, but
also de jure.
Are You Tired Of
The Lies And
Non-Stop Propaganda?
One
might wonder how to square this reading with the
March 2022 Russia-Ukraine negotiations
facilitated by Turkiye. Perhaps Russia actually
did intend to solve this if a deal were worked
out; “Um, you know this has no legal effect
unless you cancel the termination of our
treaties?” But Russia now has no reason to be
flexible. Recall Ukraine was warned about that
too. Putin said the longer the war went on, the
more difficult it would become to negotiate with
Russia. Russia would require more to lay down
its arms if Ukraine and the West kept fighting.
Oh, and
in case you missed it (I believe Conor will also
be featuring this tweet in Links shortly),
Ukraine has given up its remaining pretenses of
being a democracy:
By John
Helmer, the longest continuously serving foreign
correspondent in Russia, and the only western
journalist to direct his own bureau independent
of single national or commercial ties. Helmer
has also been a professor of political science,
and an advisor to government heads in Greece,
the United States, and Asia. He is the first and
only member of a US presidential administration
(Jimmy Carter) to establish himself in Russia.
Originally published at
Dances with Bears
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