Will Ukrainian President Zelenskiy End The War?

President-elect Volodymyr Zelenskiy takes the oath on May 20, 2019 © REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko

Reuters: Ukraine's Russian-speaking president gives glimmer of hope to war-torn east

DONETSK/SLOVYANSK, Ukraine (Reuters) - In one of his first acts as Ukrainian president, comedian-turned-politician Volodymyr Zelenskiy held out a symbolic olive branch to people in Ukraine’s mostly Russian-speaking Donbass region, by switching from Ukrainian to Russian.

That gesture, during his inauguration in the Ukrainian parliament in May, sent a message of inclusion to people in the mainly separatist-controlled Donbass region. And for some, at least, it offers a faint glimmer of hope in a conflict that has claimed 13,000 lives and shows no sign of resolution.

Language was a factor in the outbreak of the conflict in 2014, with Russian speakers in Donbass saying they feared Kiev would impose the Ukrainian language on them. Ukraine says Russia exploited such fears to foment an anti-Kiev uprising that it also backed with troops and weapons. Moscow says it only provides political and humanitarian support to the rebels.

Read more ....

WNU Editor: Any hopes for peace took a huge setback today with a new Ukrainian language law that came into force. Passed by parliament and signed by former Ukrainian President Poroshenko (it was the last piece of legislation that he signed as President), the bill stipulates that Ukrainian is the official language, and that all citizens must now be obliged to use the Ukrainian language in all spheres of life .... Ukraine Passes Language Law Banning Russian In Public Institutions, Schools, And Public Service Jobs (April 27, 2019). For the regions where Russian-Ukrainians are dominant, and where the language of choice has been Russian for centuries, the backlash has been overwhelming negative. Fortunately, there are parliamentary elections in Ukraine this Sunday, and if the polls are correct (and I believe that they are), the members of parliament who voted in this discriminatory and backward law are going to be universally voted out. Ukrainian President Zelenskiy has promised that once his party wins Sunday's elections, they will rescind this law. All that I can say is .... the sooner the better. Not surprising, Moscow is using this law to its advantage .... Russia and West spar at UN over minority rights in Ukraine (AFP). More here .... Moscow calls on Council of Europe to react to Ukraine’s new language law (RT).

On a side note many have asked me why am I passionate about Ukraine. I forget that I get new readers everyday, and many are unaware of my connections and history with Ukraine. A few weeks ago in response to a comment on Ukraine, I posted a response that I am now re-posting below. I hope it answers any questions on why Ukraine is important to me:

My views on Ukraine comes from my family on my father's side whose roots I can trace back almost 3 centuries. My father was Russian-Ukrainian, and his/our family hometown is the city of Bila Tserkva, about 80 - 90 kilometres south of Kiev. And while Moscow became my father's home after the war, I am someone who has lived in Ukraine, even once thinking of buying a home near Odessa for my retirement years. Canada, Russia, and Ukraine .... I am a product of these three countries. And I am passionate on all three.

Long time readers of this blog also know that I warned in 2013 that if the democratically elected Ukrainian President (Viktor Yanukovych) was overthrown, it would fracture the country. His base of support mainly came from Russian-Ukrainians, and he was very protective of their minority rights. But it was not to be. Many Ukrainians were fed up with his corruption and incompetence, and they could not wait for the next election to vote him out. In my own family the Maiden Revolution caused some serious splits that are only healing now. My cousin's young daughter assisted protesters who were wounded in Kiev during the revolution, and even commandeered a building a few blocks from the square that her mom owned. Needless to say that this angered her mom, and other members of the family. She survived unscathed, and today she lives in Miami selling real-estate to Russian and Ukrainian businessmen/immigrants. She is also the poster child on what has gone wrong in Ukraine. She, like so many others .... have lost faith in the revolution, and do not want to go back. When did this break happen? I would say it happened when Ukrainian nationalists took control of parliament and passed legislation targeting Ukrainian-Russians, followed by President Poroshenko breaking his campaign promise to broker a deal with the separatists in the east.

It was also during this time that I was involved in helping friends who were parliamentarians to push for a federated political system like Switzerland's or Canada's. To defuse a crisis and start a dialogue before it got out of control. This initiative failed, because the decision was already made to send in the soldiers to stop the protesters in eastern Ukraine against the provisional government. Oleksandr Turchynov was President Of Ukraine from the end of February (2014) to the beginning of June when Poroshenko took over, and it was during this time that the worst decisions that anyone could make were made. His commitment to banning Russian, a language that is widely spoken in Ukraine, and to purge government/media/industry of Russian-Ukrainians, precipitated a blow-back that we are still living today. Regions like Crimea that are 85% Russian were stunned with what had happened, and when given a choice between a nationalist government in Kiev hell bent on targeting their language and culture or a pro-Russian government in Moscow that would guarantee their language and culture, not surprisingly they overwhelmingly chose Moscow. Russian President Putin .... who I have never supported .... took advantage of this crisis. And today .... I can say with 100% certainty .... Crimea will never go back to Ukraine.

What happened in Donetsk and Luhansk was also predictable. People in the Donbas regard themselves as Russians first, with a history that goes back almost 1,000 years. They are also fiercely nationalistic, and as my father told me many times, stubborn as hell. The Germans during the Second World War regarded this part of occupied Soviet territory to be impossible to rule, and it is also in this region that the first labour strikes against Communist rule in the former Soviet Union started. Gorbachev tried to crush these strikes by sending in KGB goons, but they were beaten up and sent back on the first train out of the region. That is who these people are.

That is why I always chuckle when I hear commentators say Putin is responsible for the mess that is Ukraine today. Yes .... he provides weapons and turns a blind eye to those who want to go there to fight for the cause, but bottom line the people in eastern Ukraine follow their own destiny, and if someone is willing to help them, they will grab that help and say thank you. That is why there is only one real path to end the war. President Zelensky will need to keep the promises that he made, and to turf out those who made the mess that is Ukraine today. He will need to compromise with the rebel leaders in the east, and to make peace with the country's sizable Russian-Ukrainian population. Failure to do so is not an option. Because failure will only depress his supporters, cripple his economic and anti-corruption agenda, and more importantly, perpetuate the war.