Paul Goble
Staunton, Mar. 20 – Russian units fighting on the side of Ukraine against Moscow have achieved remarkable success in the field and could easily become “one of the most important and even decisive factors of the struggle against the neo-Soviet Rusisan Federation, Dimitry Savvin says.
But despite this, they have not received from the Ukrainian government a clear answer as to how Kyiv will react when the goals of the Russian units now fighting side by side with Ukrainian ones begin to diverge, the editor of the Riga-based conservative Harbin portal says (harbin.lv/russkoe-dobrovolchestvo-yasnost-na-fronte-tuman-v-tylu).
In the short term, of course, the interests of such Russian units and the Ukrainian forces they are working with have the same goals: the defeat of Russian forces on Ukrainian territory and the expulsion of the Russians from that territory. But in the longer term, the Russian units likely have broader goals as far as regime change in Russia is concerned.
And that means, Savvin continues, that the Ukrainian government and those in the West who support it need to ask themselves how far they are prepared to support these Russian aspirations and what they will do if and when those aspirations come into open conflict with the aspirations of Ukraine.
If Kyiv believes that the Russians now fighting alongside them are not entitled to have a liberation army, then the Russian units will “never be equal allies.” In that event, the Ukrainian authorities need to be very clear about that; and the Russian forces need to understand the limitations that places them under.
If on the other hand, Savvin says, then Kyiv should “officially declare that and make it legally unambiguous.” If it does that, then this will bring thousands and perhaps tens of thousands of Russians to the banner of the Russian units now fighting for Ukraine against Moscow.
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