Why ceding Donbas to Putin is not option

This is evidenced by both the public statements of both presidents and Trump's excellent mood, as he achieved his goal of inclining Ukraine to capitulate on Putin's terms.

It is noteworthy that, understanding the terrible price of handing over the last bastion before Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, and Dnipro, the President of Ukraine avoids responsibility for such a decision and proposes to adopt it in a referendum.

"Unfortunately, the result of such a referendum is predictable. The "party of peace at any cost" in this referendum will defeat the minority who understand the consequences of handing over the impregnable fortified area and withdrawing the Ukrainian Armed Forces into the open steppe."

I want to believe that these agreements are just Zelenskyy's game to avoid angering Trump. Because the consequences of withdrawing from Kramatorsk, Sloviansk, and Kostiantynivka are equivalent to losing the entire left bank of the Dnipro River.

Just as after the loss of Avdiivka, we have already lost a lot and will lose even more, the loss of the Kramatorsk agglomeration will be a harbinger of much greater losses.

Receiving guarantees from the U.S. for withdrawing from Donbas is an absolutely worthless promise, unsupported by anything! 

"I remind you, we still have the Budapest Memorandum, the Great Treaty of Friendship with the Russian Federation, the Almaty Declaration on the inviolability of the borders of the former Soviet republics, and about fifty different "security" agreements that Yermak has signed over the past few years."

Seriously expecting that some agreement with America will force Trump's America to fight for Ukraine with Russia is the most stupid and naive absurdity!

In fact, the very idea of giving away Donbas for Trump's promises is even more idiotic than the Indians selling Manhattan. Because then the Indians received at least blankets and beads, and we will receive nothing.

Today you will see many people who will sell their reputation for places on future lists and simply for 20 dollars. They will convince you that the idea of giving away Donbas is great, because otherwise, Putin will attack. They will speculate on your feelings, war fatigue, criticism of politicians you don't like, with one goal – to implement the Trump/Putin plan, which will be a prerequisite for the further absorption of Ukraine. The smartest of them will say that there is no need to panic, because nothing has been signed yet and not everything is so clear-cut. But all together they will work to justify a decision deadly for Ukraine: the withdrawal of the Ukrainian army from the fortified areas of Donbas into the open field. 

If you have at least a little critical thinking, you should remember all these people by name and draw conclusions about them.

Due to the fact that I do not possess all the information available to the Commander-in-Chief, I do not know what peace would be just given the current balance of power between Russia and Ukraine. But I know for sure that withdrawal from such a fortified area as the Sloviansk-Kramatorsk agglomeration is possible only as a result of capitulation, when there are simply no other options left.

To sign a peace on such terms means to pass the war on to your children. An already lost war. Because without the Sloviansk-Kramatorsk agglomeration, the next fortified areas are Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, and Dnipro.

Source

About the author: Serhii Marchenko, labor market expert, blogger, serviceman.

The editorial board does not always share the opinions expressed by the authors of the blogs.