“An unfashionable point of view” about Ukraine

A Ukrainian soldier clashes with a pro-Russia protester in a field near Kramatorsk in eastern Ukraine [April 2014]. Photo Reuters.

by Systematic

Ukrainian journalist Elena Poskakannaya, via Fort Rus, summarizes some opinions expressed recently by Dmitriy Gordon (pictured below), a popular Ukrainian media personality:

[…] “There are wonderful people on the Donbass, but as a whole they have pro-Russian views. They hate Ukrainians, don’t want to speak Ukrainian, and adopt Ukrainian and European values. What will we achieve by retaining the occupied territories? A few million hostile inhabitants who will, as before, dictate to us how we should live and what we should do, and moreover support bandits in the government,” Gordon said.

“It’s enough to go to the recently liberated cities and ask people what they think of Ukraine. I know these numbers from SBU officers: 80% of Mariupol’s population is against Ukraine,” Gordon said.

He expressed concern that, after elections in occupied regions criminals would perfectly legally enter state administration. The electoral system would even give them opportunities to sit in the Rada.

“They’ll elect Zakharchenko, Plotnitskiy, into the local councils. Then they will be legally elected to the Rada. Why do I need people like that in power in my country? Why should the Rada or local councils have people who killed patriots? Why should we forgive them for all that?”, Gordon said. […]

At the end of his post in Fort Rus, J.Hawk comments Gordon’s opinions this way:

The guy is obviously living in a parallel universe. He still believes in the Eurointegration utopia, in the promise of Ukrainian nationalism, Ukrainian “values” which are supposedly compatible with European values, and all that. With the Donbass being the only obstacle to Ukraine realizing its full potential. All you have to do is let the Donbass (and Crimea) go, and suddenly there will be money for everything! Freedom! Democracy! No corruption!

So I guess we are at the “sour grapes” phase of Ukraine’s struggle to conquer the Donbass which is definitely a step forward. Dmitriy Gordon is a prominent figure in Ukraine, his opinion carries some weight, and he is most likely correct in saying that many people in Ukraine think like he does.

But in the final account, his rant is nothing more than a “politically correct” version of what Lutsenko [leader of the Petro Poroshenko Bloc parliamentary faction]  said a couple of days earlier–if the economy doesn’t improve, we’ll have no choice but to fall on our knees before Russia. And considering that Russia won’t budge an inch until the status of the Donbass is decided to its satisfaction, Gordon’s proposal is simply an effort to put a positive spin on Kiev’s capitulation…

Read in full Gordon: “Donbass is Ukraine’s ball-and-chain” at Fort Russ

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