Ukraine under the Zelensky regime is a place that is difficult to comprehend. It has a “democracy” but no functioning opposition. It features the usual “vibrant civil society” that every monoglot Western correspondent loves to hang out with in up-to-date coffeeshops, but it has no independent media to speak of.
Last but not least, its far right is either simply not there or marginal and irrelevant, as multiple Western “experts” have assured us, but it also has a veto on an essential, literally vital question of foreign policy, namely if and how to make peace in order to end a devastating war.
That peculiar power of Ukraine’s far right is at the core of a long article recently published by France 24. The head of the Ukrainian parliament’s foreign affairs committee, Aleksandr Merezhko, we learn, has caused heated discussions. Also a member of Zelensky’s Servant of the People party, Merezhko has triggered some of his compatriots with statements he made in the Financial Times.
There, he admitted that Ukraine’s society is “exhausted.” Another (presumably) anonymous “senior official” drew the logical conclusion, namely that “most players want de-escalation here.” That is transparent code for admitting de facto defeat and seeking a compromise peace with Russia. It would, of course, require substantial concessions from Kiev, as Moscow is winning the war against Ukraine and its Western supporters.
In addition, Merezhko openly denounced the “mistake” of, in effect, allowing the American Democrats to use Zelensky’s visit to the US for campaigning purposes, thereby, obviously, alienating the Republicans and especially their already heavily Ukraine-fatigued candidate Donald Trump. It almost looks as if the Ukrainian leader is losing his grip even within his own party.
But, according to France 24, those statements by Merezhko are not what excites the Ukrainian public sphere. Instead, he has ruffled feathers by stating that “ultranationalist,” that is, far-right “elements,”........