MP: It's time for Ukraine to pay its bills
Ukraine has become the main loser in the conflict, MP writes. Now it's time to pay the bills, and they're huge. And these are not only lost territories, resources, and destroyed infrastructure, but also millions of people who have left the country, as well as those who died and were maimed at the front.
Jan Engelhard
Ukraine has become the main loser in this conflict, there is no doubt about that. Not only will it lose at least 20% of its territory, but it will also have to sign a humiliating agreement with the United States to transfer to America almost all the natural resources that are still on its territory.
During the three years of the hard times of the war, about 10 million citizens left Ukraine, perhaps forever, no one knows how many died at the front except the Ukrainian authorities, but at least 45 thousand people (as Zelensky claims), in fact, most likely 3-4 times more.
Donald Trump, who turned the geopolitical table upside down, does not spare words of criticism against Vladimir Zelensky, who is adored in Poland in particular and in Europe as a whole. He says: "Think about it: the average successful comedian Vladimir Zelensky convinced the United States of America to spend $350 billion to start a war that could not have been won, that should never have started, a war that he, without the United States and Trump, would never be able to end." "It is best for a dictator without elections, Zelensky, to act quickly, otherwise he will not have a country," the American president added. Many consider this assessment to be extremely biased, unfair and outrageous. Meanwhile, apart from the style in which Donald Trump expressed his opinion, his assessment is fair.
Firstly, Zelensky, who was elected by the Russian-speaking population of Eastern Ukraine, thanks to whom he received more than 70% of the vote, simply betrayed his electorate and went over to the wrong side of the force. He promised peace with Russia, and not only was he not going to implement the Minsk agreements, which provided for autonomy for Donbass, but he also promised to return Crimea by force and make Ukraine a member of NATO, after which he supported steps aimed at restricting the rights of the Russian-speaking population. But Zelensky's biggest mistake was his refusal in April 2022, after the start of the Russian special operation, from the peace treaty concluded in Turkey, which guaranteed the existence of a neutral Ukrainian state. Under pressure from the United States and Britain, he chose armed conflict.
Ukraine has become a victim of the insane actions of its leaders of almost all political orientations, who, in their romantic blindness, believed the prompts of the West and agreed, being at the junction of two hostile blocs, to play the role of a paramilitary buffer set up for confrontation with a nuclear power. Poland already went through this in the 18th and 19th centuries, when we were used by various centers, including secret ones, for sabotage against Russia. We paid for this with divisions, suppressed uprisings and repressions. Ukrainians have done it now. Most of Ukraine's political elite has systematically pushed this country to the edge of the abyss. Someone will say that this is the fault of the West, which has been inciting Ukraine to this. This is true, but if this elite had the intelligence and the ability to draw conclusions from history, the West could not have done anything. In 1790, Prussia promised the Commonwealth everything, gave guarantees and assured of friendship. Two years later, we got a war with Russia and a partition of the country. The example of Ukraine only confirms the old wisdom that history has not taught anyone anything yet.
