Prospects of reintegration for Donbas. Part 1

Here gossip has started again that Ukraine should urgently reintegrate Donbas in some way, solve problems arising in connection with the reintegration and, therefore, in every possible way to pose as providers of progress at a barbaric planet.
 
Naturally, the question of how to help our native country has immediately given birth to wild clashes and dirty mess. Not a bit of wanting to get into those clashes and dirty messes I would like to discuss a pair of arguments used by debaters.

So, the first argument.

Ukraine has to pay pensions and social benefits, otherwise it will not be able to return Donbas.

Leaving the question on necessity of payments I would say that the argument is very reckless. Let me remind you that the war has begun still when subsidies and pensions were paid both in Crimea and Donbas. That is, a process of reintegration does not depend on whether Ukraine pays something or not that is confirmed by an example from the recent past. The reintegration process slightly depends on do people want and dream to obtain Ukrainian pension in the future. As well as the process of creeping annexation depended slightly on that someone would receive a higher retirement from Russia which he or she has learned through the TV. And, in fact, whether there is such a Russian pension of cosmic scale, or Ukrainian pension is significantly lower at the moment, it is a minor factor compared with prospects. Do we promise to pay after reintegration? So, they have prospects.

Moreover, this argument is fairly insulting since it convicts for the occupation those millions of people which remain under the occupation. Say, they're dissatisfied with something and therefore there are the occupied territories in Ukraine and, as a result, Ukrainian pensions and social payments are not available there.

However, this shifting the blame is outright manipulation, at least for the reason that the real reason for the occupation weighs 45 tons, whistling while working and leaves characteristic traces on the ground. This reason is called a Russian tank.

This is a Russian tank that holds boundaries of the Russian occupation of Donbas, and not mythical crowds of pensioners and recipients of social payments. It was a Buryat soldier from Ulan-Ude in Russia who burnt in a Russian tank closing the "cover" of entrapment for Ukrainian fighters in Debaltsevo and not a special group of pensioners from Torez. Not residents of the hostel for blinds from Makeyevka have drawn Debaltsevo operation features on wide maps, but anonymous Russian officers from the "Novorossiya army headquarters".

In this regard, I have a question.

What is the affect of payment of pensions namely in the occupied territories on presence or absence of a Russian tank there?

In my opinion, there is no affect. A Russian tank is well affected by a 152 mm projectile or "Stugna" missile which hit its tower. A couple of them is the best. Affects of pensions are rather sluggish.

A Russian tank hull bears a small print with a claim about the following argument what I would like to discuss.

The argument goes like this: as soon as Ukraine will implement Minsk agreement items, the Kremlin will return to Ukraine the occupied part of Donbas. And in order to implement the items we have to start paying pensions, moreover, it is necessary to pay pensions because... {see the argument number 1 discussed above}.

If the whole issue for the Kremlin was payment of subsidies and pensions the war should not be started. Well, do you want to convince me that the Kremlin started the conflict to force Ukraine to pay pensions which were paid by Ukraine anyway?

So we must assume that the Kremlin has another objective. They speak directly about this objective.

Their objective is "some other" Ukraine. This is evidenced by Zakharchenko and by Plotnitsky who enunciate the texts written for them in some building situated on the Old Square in Moscow, and by Russian diplomats texts for which, in fact, are written in the same place. Do you plug in? Some other Ukraine. The Kremlin will stop the war and return something to someone when Ukraine will be some other. If you look closely around Russia, you can see that Ukraine should be as Turkmenistan or North Korea, for example. As a last resort, such as Belarus. Or as Kazakhstan.

Anton Shvets
 
New service "Explain Ukraine". This is a daily mailout of five articles which were written about the situation in the Donbas by Donbas journalists and translated into English. Honest vision of people who work in the field is unbiased and fresh which is crucial in the world which is full of desinformation and propaganda. We try to share this vision in out daily mailout.  You can subscribe here.