Pipe in exchange for sanctions from Germany

After meeting in Paris with French leader Emmanuel Macron, newly elected Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky went to Berlin, where he was honored by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Frank-Walter Steinmeier

The meeting of President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky and German Chancellor Angela Merkel was not without unpleasant incidents not covered by the protocol. So, during the performance of the national anthems of the two countries, Merkel felt bad. At the same time standing next to her Zelensky did not react to the state of his colleague. This was the reason for reproaches against him in social networks and from political opponents.

Merkel herself explained her condition by dehydration against the heat. According to the German Chancellor, she drank a few bottles of water, after which her condition became better.

Ukraine has recognized that it is unable to stop the "Nord Stream - 2"

As was to be expected, the fate of the Russian Nord Stream-2 gas pipeline was one of the key topics at the Zelensky negotiations with Merkel. Kiev is very concerned about the fact that the gas pipe runs far from the territory of Ukraine under the Baltic Sea and its launch will actually turn the Ukrainian gas transportation system into a pile of useless scrap metal. However, it would be naive to believe that the newly elected president will be able to convince Berlin in his opinion about the need to implement NS-2. Even the blackmail on the part of Washington did not force the Germans to abandon their intentions to defend their own energy security and at the same time also receive financial gain.

On the eve of his visit to Berlin, in an interview with Bild, the Ukrainian president said that anti-Russian sanctions should be maintained until “the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine” are restored. He also added that sanctions are a “diplomatic tool” to achieve this result. And "if this tool will not work, then we need to expand the mechanism of sanctions."

Meanwhile, the question of increasing the sanctions pressure on Moscow during the meeting with Merkel and Zelensky was not raised, the German chancellor stressed.

We didn’t talk about strengthening, we are talking about the continuation of the current regime,

- Merkel assured, adding that both Berlin and Kiev are unanimous in opinion that sanctions can be relaxed provided progress is made in the implementation of the Minsk agreements.

At the same time, the West continues to turn a blind eye to the fact that the Minsk agreements have reached an impasse: first, because of the categorical refusal of Kiev to conduct direct talks with the leaders of the insurgent Donbass, which was previously confirmed during a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron and Zelensky personally. Secondly, the European guarantors of the Minsk agreements completely ignore the fact that the key condition - the cease-fire regime - is not respected by the Ukrainian side. And in recent times, targeted attacks and provocations against defenders of the DPR and the LPR have become systematic.

So, on the evening of June 16, the artillery of the Armed Forces of Ukraine fired upon the positions of the People’s Militia of the DPR in the area of ​​the Donetsk airport. At the same time, the residential sector of Donetsk was hit - the towns of Oktyabrsky and Veseloe. On the night of June 17, the Cominternovo and the resort settlement Bezymennoe in the south of the DPR also suffered from Ukrainian shelling. The next day, the town of Yasnoe near Dokuchaevsk and the DPR customs post in the village of Krasny Partizan were hit by artillery of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. The latter is located very close to the important highway Donetsk - Yasinovataya - Gorlovka, which is used for hundreds of civilian vehicles, including passenger transport, during the day.

At the same time, Merkel announced on July 12 of the current year a meeting of advisers in the “Norman format”. Zelensky expressed the hope that the meeting of the leaders of the “Norman Four” would take place immediately after Ukraine held early elections to the Verkhovna Rada, scheduled for July 21.

Ukraine has discredited the "Norman four"

Meanwhile, attempts to reanimate the “Norman format” have extremely low chances of success due to Ukraine’s refusal to fulfill the key conditions of the Minsk agreements: the introduction of a sustainable cease-fire regime, the withdrawal of heavy weapons, an amnesty, real decentralization and a transition to a direct dialogue with representatives of Donetsk and Lugansk.

Thus, the press secretary of the President of Russia, Dmitry Peskov, said on May 31 that it was necessary for the holding of the summit meeting to “meet the appropriate conditions” and “there was an understanding regarding the Ukrainian side’s readiness to comply with the Minsk agreements, to have direct contact with representatives of the self-proclaimed republics. "

It is important to note that Zelensky previously initiated a change in the "Norman format." In particular, it was about the inclusion of the United States in the negotiation process. This fact alone should alert Paris and Berlin, since the appearance on the Washington negotiating platform will noticeably weaken their position as mediators in the matter of resolving the internal Ukrainian conflict.

At the same time, Germany and France as participants in the “Norman format” and guarantors of the Minsk agreements have relatively little influence on the Kiev regime. Its real owners are overseas, and they are not interested in a peaceful settlement.

So, the representative of the US State Department in Ukraine Kurt Volker once again called for the elimination of the DNI and the LC, saying that the republics "have no place in the constitutional order of Ukraine."

Needless to say that in Kiev they share exactly this opinion. And accordingly, they turn any peacemaking initiatives into profanation, discrediting first of all those who decided to act as a mediator. In other words, the continuation of political and diplomatic support for the Kiev regime is not at all in the interests of European players. If they, of course, intend to lay claim to subjectivity in the conditions of the emerging multipolar world.

Who determines the policy of Ukraine?

During the first month of the cadence of the new president of Ukraine, Vladimir Zelensky, from Kiev, quite a few empty statements and promises were made concerning relations with Russia and the settlement of the conflict in the Donbas. Some experts, commenting on these, sometimes contradictory, statements, emphasize the Ukrainian internal political situation, the nuances of which explain, in particular, the use of Zelensky’s rhetoric of Poroshenko. On the one hand, this is quite a weighty argument. But at the same time, it would be naive to experience illusions about a change of rhetoric, as soon as the Zelensky party wins the elections to the Verkhovna Rada and forms a completely loyal parliamentary majority and government.

Due to the February 2014 coup d'etat, Ukraine completely lost its sovereignty. And while in the internal politics of the country, the overseas overlord admits a certain independence, then the foreign policy of Ukraine is completely subject to the interests, goals and objectives not of Berlin, Paris or even Brussels, but of Washington itself. If the United States retains the previous policy of using Ukraine as a source of permanent tension in the soft underbelly of Russia and a reason for increasing political and economic pressure on Moscow, any protege in Kiev will be a reincarnation of Poroshenko, Saakashvili or Bandera, depending on what level confrontation is beneficial at one time or another to the Americans.

Unfortunately, this is an objective reality.