From The Grayzone:
Pushback with Aaron Maté
As the Russia-Ukraine war opens a new phase in the Donbas, scholar Richard Sakwa on the absence of diplomacy; the Western media’s veneration of Zelensky; the European Union’s self-implosion over the war; and the crackdown on dissent in both Ukraine and Russia.
Richard’s characterization of Zelensky as a demagogue without an iota of the statesman in him is spot on; however, I think he overestimates Zelensky’s ability to make peace. Zelensky doesn’t have any power of his own. He has to function in an environment where the oligarchs and right-wing militias control everything. The right-wing extremists have learned how to topple a government on the Maidan. They know they can do it again any time they chose to. The Maidan Republic lives on the heritage of the fascist coup. That won’t go away no matter how many elections they hold. Even if the Russians eliminate the Nazis in the East, their leaders in Kyiv, who sit at the levers of power, will always be able to regroup under the banner of Bandera nationalism, which has been augmented by the myth of the “order of the heavenly hundred heroes” even foreign politicians visiting Kyiv are now required to pay their respect to.
The aim of Nato membership was enshrined in the constitution in 2019 and the decision to retake the Donbas and Crimea by force was made by National Security Council Decree 117 in March last year in advance of the Ukrainian military buildup in the Donbas later that year. No matter what Zelensky may say under pressure, he doesn’t have the power to change that.