On his Telegram channel on Wednesday, former Russian president and prime minister Dmitriy Medvedev took yet another opportunity to denigrate Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky and whether Kyiv is really seeking peace. In his distorted world view it’s an attempt to use negotiation as a weapon against the Kremlin.
Medvedev said that Kyiv had used the opportunity presented by the NATO Heads of States summit in Washington to “once again add new notes to the determination of the corrupt Ukrainian elite to begin negotiations, putting military operations on pause. The question is, is this beneficial for Russia?”
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He said President Vladimir Putin “has repeatedly stated at various venues his readiness to return to negotiations only on our own [Moscow’s] terms,” saying NATO members and Zelensky had rejected Russia’s proposals “out of the gate.”
In June, Putin said that he was ready to end the war with Ukraine if Kyiv withdrew its troops from the territories of the Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk and Luhansk regions, even those not occupied by Russia, and abandoned its ambition to join NATO.
President Zelensky dismissed Putin’s call as no more than an ultimatum and said that he was ready to begin negotiations with Moscow “tomorrow” if Russia first withdraws its troops from Ukrainian territory, including the Crimean Peninsula.
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Medvedev then says that even if Kyiv had accepted Putin’s offers, his assessment would have been only subterfuge to give Ukraine time to replenish its military and human resources. It would then be only a matter of time before another “bloody Maidan” sweeps the “current junta” aside to be replaced by an even more radical regime.
“Even after signing the papers and accepting defeat, the remaining [Ukrainian] radicals after a regrouping of forces, will sooner or later return to power, inspired by Russia’s Western enemies.”
His solution would be for Moscow to sign a peace treaty while preparing to seize the entire territory of Ukraine – “and then the time will come to finally crush the reptile,” Medvedev wrote.
According to him, this would be the moment Russia should “drive a long steel nail into the coffin of the Bandera’s [his derogatory term for Zelensky] quasi-state,” after which Russia should “destroy the remnants of his bloody legacy and return the remaining lands to the bosom of Russia.”
To see “through a glass [mirror] darkly” is taken from the writings of the Apostle Paul and describes those who have an obscure or imperfect vision of reality. Medvedev has often proven that is how he sees the world and the war in Ukraine. Taking the analogy further his description of Kyiv’s motives for seeking peace are actual distorted reflections of Putin’s and Russia’s objectives. It’s a classic case of what psychology calls projection.
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