Endless Lecturing and Begging: Zelensky Preaches to World Leaders
16:28 30.10.2024 (Updated: 16:45 30.10.2024)
© AP Photo / NYOTK
Subscribe
The feedback was the most interesting thing about the recent interview of Vladimir Zelensky, the current leader of Ukraine, to the Times of India.
First, Zelensky was, naturally, speaking about Russia, too, but the Russian public’s reaction was predictably missing. The search tool produces essentially only one notable response to that interview, belonging to my agency Ria.ru and later reprinted by several Russian media. Namely, “last week Zelensky was reprimanding the UN General Secretary, and now he is lecturing the Prime Minister of India”.
To remind, these are the most notable things the Ukrainian leader said, highlighted by the TOI itself.
"You cannot be neutral because it would mean you are on the side of Russia. Between the aggressor and the victim, there cannot be neutrality. I consider this a hidden support for Russia. Those at the BRICS summit saying they would like to help solve the conflict, in my opinion, look more pro-Russia, ” he said. “Modi is PM of a really huge country, from perspective of population, economy, influence and impact. Such a country cannot just say we’re interested in end of war."
Second, some Russian websites have translated and published several remarks of readers of the interview. That, of course, is already the Indian reaction to Zelensky’s bad manners. And here we have something really interesting to read.
Well, you know these newspeople, they love cherry picking, that is, they look through the whole bulk of opinions expressed, but they pick up only the ones that they like. Knowing this, I have read ALL of the 137 readers’ comments to the interview (137 at the moment when I opened the page; now there must be more). And I was really impressed by the unanimity of Indian public opinion on Zelensky’s lecture.
And now let’s have a look at some of the reader’s opinions about Zelensky’s and, generally, Ukrainian views, with spelling peculiarities of these remarks respectfully retained:
"This war can be stopped by Ukraine itself to settle differences directly with Russia and tell them he will not allow any NATO forces on its land. No one can help to diffuse this war until both nations Russia and Ukrain agree to settle themselves," a reader behint the Patriot nickname wrote.
"Once a clown, always a clown. Is he ready to support India against POK and Pakistan’s terror sponsorship," the other commentator pointed out.
"The biggest gainer in all wars is the United States only. Their arm mafia is so uncontrollable that even the govt seems to fear them. This war would never had happened if NATO forces were not deployed at Russia-Ukraine nearby areas," a user named Rishabh stated.
One should always admit that there are a lot of nations in this world, and the public of faraway countries is not obliged to comprehend in details all the conflicts all over the globe. But the overall impression from this, rather animated, discussion is, if not all India, then the readers of TOI get the picture of the Ukrainian war generally quite correct.
Now, let me make some of my own comments on the lessons that the war is offering us.
The first of them is, a relatively weak nation should never let itself be used by big Western powers in their hybrid conflicts with rivals. At first, such nation lets itself be lured by all kind of promises of aid and support, but then the time comes when the big, but cowardly sponsor may say something like, OK, you failed, I’m sorry. And then yet another Zelensky, formerly an actor and a clown, is left to carry the can, that is, make hysterical speeches, telling others what to do and what not to do.
All the Asian media is now full of debate on what happens to this or that country if Trump or Harris win the elections in the US. For the wise it may only be a shift of policy, but a change in American mood may also be a huge disaster if you were careless enough to put yourself on a war footing with somebody really strong.
A disaster comes like this: these last few days at least five European nations, Zelensky’s best friends, are telling Ukrainian refugees to get back home and go to war. That’s Germany, Poland, France, Norway and Ireland. They all are stopping paying money to Ukrainian families staying as refugees of their respective countries. What’s especially annoying to these Europeans, is Ukrainian’s habit of spending time in the 5-star hotels and driving the best cars in town. European economies are going down, and there is not enough money for keeping the former obligatory darlings of the West.
And that is not to mention the fact that the US is, shall we say, highly likely to review the wisdom of their Ukrainian policy soon after the coming change of presidents.
Why so: simply because the Russian troops are daily reporting several villages or towns, cleansed of Ukrainian troops. Nobody in the whole world has any doubts that the West has lost. So, drafting India or any other nation on the losing side is a dumb idea, regardless of the finesse of Kiev’s diplomacy or renowned lack of such.
The loss of the West is economic and moral, with plenty of nations making a mental tick: this West is not all-powerful, after all. But the loss of Ukraine is much bigger, up to complete disintegration of the former nation.
One more lesson: you should never build your nation on hatred, be it hatred to compatriots or to your neighbors. And, even if you still hate someone, you should never pursue organized campaigns to force big masses of your compatriots to behave like you want them to behave. The history of the Ukrainian state since 1991 is about hatred and mass coercion, usually called Ukrainization. The result is the loss of almost a half of the population, mainly due to emigration to Europe or Russia, with some territories irretrievably split from the former Ukraine of 1991. But if your East and South are Russian, in language, and religion, and daily habits, you should not try to subdue that population and expect peace and prosperity.
The Ukrainian war has just entered its 11th year. That’s hot war, while it was relatively cold before that. To remind, Russia has really entered that fray only in February 2022, when about a 100-thousand Ukrainian army massed on the borders of that nation’s breakaway republics, with shelling of residential quarters suddenly increasing several fold.
But never, even after the most terrible Ukrainian atrocities happening, did Russian leadership try to lecture anybody in the world that "you cannot be neutral because it would mean you are on the side of Ukraine".
Dmitry Kosyrev is a Russian writer, author of spy novels and short stories. He also did columns for the Pioneer and Firstpost.com
