Ukraine – From coup d’état to war

By Mario Sousa

The lack of information about the events in Ukraine is great and makes many people wonder what is really happening and why. With these thoughts I wrote the following article. 

On December 1, 1991, Ukraine declared itself an independent country even though the Soviet Union only ceased to exist just over 3 weeks later, on December 25, 1991. In Ukraine as in the rest of the Soviet republics, the political right took over the power in government and society. Ukraine was then a developed industrial country with modern industries (food, machinery, metals, electricity, chemicals, construction, water), mines (iron, coal, manganese, titanium, mercury, sulphur, lime, potassium carbonate), agriculture (meat, milk, wheat, buckwheat, rye, potatoes, sugar beet, corn, vegetables, sunflower seeds), with enterprises with thousands of workers worth hundreds of billions of dollars and a population of 52 million inhabitants. The unemployment rate was then 1.9%! If any of the former Soviet republics had a good chance of doing well as an independent state, it was Ukraine.

But something went wrong. By the end of 2021, before Russian forces entered Ukraine, Ukraine’s population (including Crimea), had gone down to 41.4 million people. There were about 10 million fewer inhabitants in 2021 in capitalist Ukraine than in Soviet Ukraine, a decrease of about 20%. Interesting also to note that in 2020 and 2021 alone, the number of inhabitants of Ukraine decreased by about 3 million people. As for the unemployment rate, in 2020 it was 9.5% despite the fact that the country’s labour force decreased by 4 million people.

Something serious had hit Ukraine. What? Capitalism and imperialism affected Ukraine.

When the political right took power in 1991, a robber’s train of privatisations of factories and industries started. Ukraine then had a large number of very well-developed modern factories and industries with thousands of workers. Most of it was taken over by a number of adventurers with all sorts of legal and illegal tricks under new laws on the privatisation of the socialist estates. Factories and industries were taken over by thieves who sold everything that could be sold – machines, cars, trucks, warehouses, premises, everything, mostly to foreign interests at cheap prices. Huge amounts of property that had taken generations to build up was sold out to become part of the foundation for new purchases and speculation with multiple estates. There was chaos in the economy. In this chaos, the state stopped collecting income tax when the newly rich completely stopped paying taxes. A country without debts during the Soviet era soon became a deeply indebted country. Today, Ukraine is over $100 billion in debt.

The economic chaos in Ukraine was led by the United States through a number of organisations, mainly the CIA, USAID, and the National Endowment for Democracy. Victoria Nuland became the US government official who led this attack on Ukrainian democracy. According to Nuland, the US invested $5 billion to destabilise Ukraine and make it follow the lead of the United States. The money was used to corrupt politicians and officials, support the newly rich, but also to build up right-wing parties that completely distanced themselves from Russia and from Soviet values. One of the CIA and Nuland’s major efforts was to build up the National Socialist Party that changed its name to Svoboda, (Freedom!). But despite all the money and corruption, the United States did not get what it wanted. Most Ukrainians continued to have sympathies for the friend in the East. None of the elections after 1991 could provide a basis for a new path for Ukraine away from Russia. This became very visible in the 2004 presidential election. When the elections were over and the votes were counted, a President, Viktor Yanukovych, who wanted to maintain contacts with Russia, had once again been elected. A major campaign was launched to change the election results. After months of well-paid demonstrations and protests against Yanukovych for ‘electoral fraud’ – the Orange Revolution – Ukraine’s Supreme Court called new presidential elections for January 2005. The new election with organised electoral fraud was won by US candidate Viktor Yushchenko. There followed five years of struggle to definitively separate Ukraine from Russia. During these years, Viktor Yushchenko was a disaster for the country, with several government reshuffles, constant parliamentary disarray and new elections. In the run-up to the October 2010 presidential election, Yushchenko’s chances of a new presidential term were non-existent. It didn’t help that two weeks before election day in January 2010, in a desperate attempt to win support, he made fascist UPA leader and Nazi collaborator Stepan Bandera the national hero of Ukraine. Yushchenko received 5.5% in the first round of voting, against Viktor Yanukovych’s 35.8% and Yulia Tymoshenko’s 24.7%. After five years in power, Yushchenko was definitely exhausted. The second round of voting in February 2010 was won by Viktor Yanukovych with 48.95% against Yulia Tymoshenko’s 45.47%. Again, Ukraine had a President who wanted to keep the links to Russia. But Yanukovych also wanted an open door to Europe and began negotiating an association agreement with the EU.

There was great excitement ahead of the parliamentary elections in October 2012. US billions continued to roll to the fascists in Svoboda and to the right in the form of two new parties, Yulia Tymoshenko’s Fatherland and Vitaliy Klitschko’s Udar. The parliamentary elections in October 2012 were crucial for Ukraine’s future. The election was clearly won by President Viktor Yanukovych’s Regional Party, which together with the Communist Party of Ukraine (UKP) gained a majority in parliament. The UKP received 2.687 million votes, going from 5.39% and 27 parliamentary seats to 13.8% and 32 parliamentary seats, clearly indicative of an electoral shift to the left. This was a confirmation of the great May 1 demonstration in Kiev in 2012 which about 100,000 people attended.

It must have been at this point after the 2012 parliamentary elections that the United States decided on an armed coup d’état in Ukraine. All bourgeois democratic paths of bribery and corruption had been tried to separate Ukraine from Russia, but nothing had paid off. There remained an armed coup d’état with fascist storm troopers from Svoboda, the only ones in Ukraine who could carry out such a mission for the US/CIA. In Western Ukraine, Svoboda had grown into a large party capable of organising demonstrations with thousands of supporters, including a large and well-trained guard force of violent young men. The situation in Ukraine in 2012, after over 20 years of theft and corruption with very poor living conditions for the workers and high unemployment, was one of great dissatisfaction with the politicians and great distrust of state power. In between, the multi-billionaires became increasingly wealthy.

In this situation, the political right pushed for relations with the EU and the US. Propaganda especially in favour of joining the EU became ubiquitous in society, newspapers, radio and television. The EU became for many the great saviour that would save Ukraine from misery and decay. The number of people who placed their hopes for a good future on increased economic relations with the EU grew significantly. The pressure on Yanukovych to finalise an association agreement with the EU increased.

In 2013, Ukraine was bankrupt with a great need to borrow money to be able to pay for the country’s needs, the administration, schools, hospitals, etc. President Yanukovych began negotiations with the West over a large loan. The World Bank and IMF offered $15 billion but with three conditions that had to be implemented before the loan could be considered. The first was to lift the ban on selling land. This was then an unacceptable demand for the vast majority of Ukrainians. The second requirement was that pensions should be reduced and the retirement age raised. The third demand was that the Ukrainian government should end oil and gas subsidies to the population and businesses. Russian President Putin, however, offered Ukraine $15 billion but without conditions. In addition, Putin promised lower prices for oil and gas. President Yanukovych accepted Russia’s offer.

This decision was followed by a massive campaign against Yanukovych in all the media, accusing him of being against the EU – a campaign that never ended and pressured the government of Ukraine and the President. The mood in the country became politically unstable; many people found it difficult to take a stand. In this tense situation, the US/CIA started the concrete preparations for an armed coup d’état in Ukraine. In October 2013, 90 Ukrainian fascists from Svoboda gathered and other far-right extremists received training at the Warsaw Police Academy. They were to lead an armed fascist coup d’état in Kiev. Among millions of unemployed young men, they would pick up their troops, the CIA and the billionaires providing the money needed. On Sunday, November 24, 2013, for the first time, a large demonstration against the government of Yanukovych gathered in the centre of Kiev on Independence Square, Maidan. Demonstrations continued on Sunday, December 1 and Sunday, December 8. It is estimated that at these demonstrations around 200 thousand people gathered. Ukraine’s government and President were under huge strain even though Yanukovych had clearly won the 2010 presidential election and his party had also won the 2012 parliamentary elections, gaining 12 new parliamentary seats.

On Wednesday, December 11, 2013, events took a new dramatic turn. 3,000 men with sticks and weapons invaded Independence Square, the Maidan, and large tents were set up as their quarters. These approximately 3,000 men were paid fascists and unemployed young men who wanted to make money. They got 850 hryvnia a day, about $100 at that time. A preschool teacher in those days would be  receiving 700 hryvnia a month. Those in the square earned an annual salary in ten days. The demands of the square were the immediate resignation of the government and President Yanukovych with the threat to take over the parliament and the presidential and government buildings. The police were ordered to erect a human wall in the streets leading from the square to these buildings. Those who occupied the square attacked the police with stones, sticks and iron chains in well-coordinated attacks. Representatives of the three parties of the opposition in the Parliament of Ukraine appeared on the Maidan to support the fascists in the square. They were Arseniy Yatsenyuk of Yulia Tymoshenko’s Fatherland Party, Vitaliy Klitschko of Udar and Oleh Tyahnybok of fascist Svoboda. The three were giving speeches, fascists and right-wing liberals were united.

The violence on the Maidan became even more extensive, now that it was approved and supported by elected parliamentarians. There followed a war of fascists against the police during January and February 2014. The police had clearly been ordered not to arrest anyone and not to crack down on the fascists. The police were only there as a wall to prevent the fascists’ passage towards parliament and government buildings. The police got beaten so much that it’s hard to imagine if you haven’t seen it. With batons, stones, petrol bombs, iron chains, with trucks and finally with firearms. The number of wounded police officers was huge, but the attackers were neither arrested nor counter-attacked. Afterwards, when the fascists won power in Kiev and all of Ukraine, it turned out that two of the police generals who led the police on the Maidan were members of Svoboda.

But on Thursday, February 20, 2014, after three months of combat, the situation at the Maidan suddenly took an unexpected turn. The police then began to attack the fascists on the Maidan and soon gained an advantage. At the end of the day, the police took over much of Maidan Square and pushed the fascists into a corner. When the fascists were at a disadvantage and were about to lose, great pressure from the US/EU started for there to be a peace agreement between the Ukrainian government and the fascists in the square, a well-organised move so that all would not be lost by imperialism, not least the five billion dollars invested by the US to take over Ukraine.

This well-organised movement was led by the Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt. Bildt made contact with three EU foreign ministers, Germany’s Frank-Walter Steinmeier, France’s Laurent Fabius and Poland’s Radoslaw Sikorski, with proposals to end the violence on the Maidan through an agreement between Yanukovych and the opposition, an agreement the EU would guarantee. The basis of the agreement was that the government would call new presidential and parliamentary elections, that the fascists would leave the Maidan and that the government would withdraw the police. The very next day, Friday 21 February 2014, the agreement was finalised and approved by the EU and the three foreign ministers. On Friday evening, Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski handed over the agreement to President Yanukovych, who soon gave his approval.

Very early Saturday morning, most of the police force of several thousand men left the Maidan to fulfil their part of the agreement. But, take note, without the fascists having left the Maidan! After the police had left, developments on the Maidan moved very quickly. Police left behind about 200 men. The fascists who still numbered a couple of thousand became completely free to do as they pleased. They attacked the policemen; several policemen were killed, 60 policemen were taken prisoner by the fascists, and the rest fled. After that, the fascists went against parliament and government buildings, took them over, established their power there, began to patrol the streets of Kiev where the police had completely disappeared, and took over the entire city. In a matter of hours, the fascists seized power in Ukraine. The coup d’état in Kiev was a fact. Imperialism had won.

Quickly, the fascists and the political right took over parliament, the government and the administration. Many MPs fled Kiev fearing for their lives. Parliament did not have the number of Members required to make laws. But that was no obstacle for the coup plotters. People who had been on the ballot but hadn’t received enough votes to get elected were now allowed to take up the vacancies and to vote. And when that wasn’t enough, members pressed several voting buttons at the same time. In this way, a new acting speaker was elected, the well-known fascist Oleksandr Turchynov, who also became the country’s new acting president. Another well-known fascist, Andriy Parubiy, a member and founder of the fascist party Svoboda, was elected supreme security officer of Ukraine, the highest head of the fascists at the Maidan who had started and become the leader of the neo-Nazi organisation Right Sector.

The first two laws of the coup parliament speak plainly to who the new rulers were. It abolished the ban on Nazi propaganda and adopted a ban on using the Russian language as an official language. Ukraine, under the Soviet Union and thereafter, had had two official languages, Ukrainian and Russian. Now the billionaires were free to do as they pleased and several were acquiring armies of their own. Private armies were prohibited by the Law of Ukraine. But the Minister of the Interior of the coup government, billionaire Arsen Avakov, issued a decree authorising the formation of private armies. The first to acquire a private army, billionaire Igor Kolomoysky, was one of the main operatives in preparing and supporting the fascist coup d’état. He started with a force of 400 mercenaries that quickly increased to 1,700. Kolomoysky’s force became the basis of the neo-Nazi Azov battalion. Note that this Kolomoysky is a practising Jew and has Russian as his mother tongue. Business and money come first for some people.

A reorganisation of the police was carried out. Many were fired and some were charged with participating in the police force during the Maidan. A new police chief in Kiev was appointed, Vadim Trojan, who was deputy supreme commander of the Azov battalion. Several of the Trojan’s cronies in Azov accompanied and became his subordinate police chiefs in Kiev. After a few months, Trojan was appointed Ukraine’s National Police Chief.

All over Ukraine, people rose up in opposition to the coup d’état. Large demonstrations took place in many cities of Ukraine: Charkov, Odessa, Lugansk, Donetsk, Kherson, Mariupol, Nikolayev, Zaparozhe, Dnipropetrovsk, Simferopol, Sevastopol. The slogans were against the coup d’état, against the EU, against fascism. On March 11, 2014, Crimea held a referendum in which a large majority of the people of Crimea participated and a large majority voted for accession to Russia. Before the referendum, the fascists had tried to take over Crimea. Billionaire Igor Kolomoysky from Dnepropetrovsk sent a caravan of buses with mercenaries to take over the Crimean capital Simferopol and secure Crimea for the new Ukrainian rule. After some successes against people who had not expected a violent confrontation, Kolomoysky’s mercenaries had to face people from Sevastopol who had organised themselves against the fascists. Kolomoysky’s mercenaries were badly beaten and forced to flee Crimea. Similar events took place in Donetsk. But here Kolomojsky’s men suffered greater losses. The buses that Kolomoysky sent to Donetsk were completely destroyed and the fascists had to seek refuge with the police who had to take some to the hospital and sent the others back to Dnepropetrovsk in new buses.

Elsewhere in Ukraine, the fascists gained the upper hand. In Odessa where the people had demonstrated several times against the fascist coup d’état in demonstrations with tens of thousands of participants, the mood was completely against the new fascist rule in Kiev. One of these demonstrations became historic. The large anti-fascist demonstration of tens of thousands of people walked through Primorsky boulevard towards the square where the statue of Duc de Richelieu stands above the great Potemkin’s staircase down to the port of Odessa. A group of fascists supporting Kiev had occupied the square and the anti-fascists were going to confront them. Slowly, the anti-fascist demonstrators came out shouting at the slogans, ‘Odessa Russian city’ and ‘Fascists shall not pass here’. Slowly, the anti-fascist protesters confronted the fascists, forcing them closer and closer to Potemkin’s staircase. In the end, the anti-fascists conquered the entire square and the fascists were forced to descend the Potemkinian staircase, the only way out of the square.

Such a strong anti-fascist mood in a large city like Odessa, the CIA knew, can only be broken with a massacre. The disorganised people in the large demonstrations then become frightened and hesitant. One such massacre was organised to take place on May 2, 2014 in Odessa. A train of football hooligans came to Odessa on this day before a match against the Odessa football team. Also on the train were mercenaries from billionaire Igor Kolomoysky’s force who incited people to attack the anti-fascists who were then meeting in the main square outside the Trade Union House. Football hooligans and Kolomoysky’s mercenaries attacked the meeting of the anti-fascists who took refuge in the House of Trade Unions. The fascists fired gun shots and threw petrol bombs at the house, with the result that dozens of people were murdered or burned inside, and many more were injured. After that, the people of Odessa became afraid, the anti-fascist demonstrations ended, and the fascists seized power over the city. I wrote an article in the newspaper Proletären [the paper of the Communist Party of Sweden] about these events. Along with other articles, they became the reason for my expulsion from Ukraine in 2017 with a stamp in my passport, ‘forbidden to enter Ukraine’.

Much the same tactic of assassination to intimidate was used by the Kiev fascists and the CIA in the city of Mariupol a week after, May 9, 2014. May 9 is the Soviet Union’s Victory Day over the Nazis and is celebrated throughout the Soviet world with large demonstrations. So also in Mariupol 2014. The Kiev fascists wanted to stop the demonstrations and ordered the police to do so. When the police did not want to obey, Kiev sent a new police chief along with an officer and some troops from the Nazi Azov battalion that were outside the city. A confrontation took place in the police station between officers who did not want to obey the new police chief and the latter’s minions. In the commotion, one policeman and one from Azov died. The Azov troops fled from Mariupol in a panic, killing many people in the course of their flight out of the city.

But the Azov fascists came back at full strength, bombarded the police station with tanks, the whole building went up in flames, and many policemen died. After that, the fascists took over anti-fascist Mariupol and organised dictatorial rule of the city. Many anti-fascists were dragged into the torture centre that Azov had set up in the airport and some were murdered there.

An opposite development occurred in the cities of Lugansk and Donetsk. There, the population organised themselves in struggle against Kiev and took over the administration with the support of the police and the army. Already on May 11, a referendum for the independence of areas from Kiev-Ukraine took place with a large turnout and over 90% yes votes. The next day, preparations for armed struggle started. The events in Odessa and Mariupol were not to be repeated in Donetsk and Lugansk. The large turnout in favour of independence from Kiev-Ukraine gave Kiev no opportunity to intervene; life continued in these areas with a new anti-fascist government. Note that the referendum had another vote that won a large turnout but never materialised. There was the question of applying for accession to the Russian Federation. The issue never came up for discussion when Russian President Putin put a stop to it. According to Putin, the problem should be solved within Ukraine.

A couple of weeks after that presidential elections took place in Ukraine, a country in a shambles where nothing worked in the administration. In this scandalous election with 30% turnout, there was a given winner, the billionaire Poroshenko who had paid well for the coup d’état in Kiev. Many expected Poroshenko to at least try to bring peace to the country. But the day after the election, all hope died. The newly elected Poroshenko then proclaimed that, “Within a week we will take back Crimea and put an end to the terrorists in Lugansk and Donetsk!” A terrible civil war began against Donetsk and Lugansk. In the absence of an army capable of taking battle, Poroshenko had to hire fascist mercenaries paid for by himself, other billionaires and the CIA. Donetsk and Lugansk defended well and Poroshenko’s troops did not meet with any success. In the end, they bet everything on one card and attacked the city of Donetsk from the west and south in an attempt to storm it. However, on September 2, 2014, Poroshenko’s fascists in the battalions of Azov, Donbass, Dnipro, Charkov and Kherson were beaten and surrounded in the city of Ilovajsk. In the precess, the militias from Donetsk and Lugansk captured thousands of fascist mercenaries, Poroshenko’s only operational force. Poroshenko had no other troops to deploy to relieve those encircled in Ilovaysk. Surrender and imprisonment or death were the message of the anti-fascists. Poroshenko was then in a hurry to ask for negotiations, to get his mercenaries out.

Belarusian President Lukashenko offered negotiations in Minsk and so it was. Poroshenko and the rulers of Lugansk and Donetsk signed a truce on 5 September and the encircled mercenaries had to leave for Kiev. This Minsk 1 agreement was adopted by the Ukrainian parliament with laws on self-government for Donetsk and Lugansk for three years. This agreement was also supported by Russian President Putin who continued to see the solution of the problems in Donetsk and Lugansk within Ukraine. According to Petro Symonenko, the Ukrainian Communist Party’s [UKP] chairman, in a statement in September 2014, the Ukrainian army and mercenaries lost 20,000 men in Donbass.

Peace did not last long. Poroshenko was eager to gain control of Donetsk and Lugansk and started preparations for new military offensive against these areas. In January 2015, the new offensive started with new fascist battalions, which included many of the previously captured mercenaries. This time, too, Poroshenko’s forces had no success. The main attack was directed against the city of Debaltsevo, a railway and highway junction between Lugansk and Donetsk. After fierce struggle, Poroshenko’s forces in the Ukrainian army and the fascist battalions of Donbass, Dubayev, Khvbas were beaten and surrounded. Over 6000 soldiers and mercenaries from the Kiev junta was trapped in a ‘sack’, while thousands had already been killed or were wounded. Poroshenko had no forces to send in to free those encircled. The victory atmosphere in Donetsk and Lugansk was a fact. The question arose of a continued struggle against Kiev. Such a continuation would have had to have the support of Russia, materially and politically. But Russian President Putin wanted to see the problem solved within Ukraine.

Instead, there would be negotiations. Poroshenko was again in a hurry to ask for negotiations. Hardly anyone took him seriously. Poroshenko had to ask for help from the EU. From the EU, German Chancellor Merkel and French President Hollande came to Minsk together with Poroshenko. Those who had written down and maligned Belarus and President Lukashenko now came and asked for a place for peace negotiations. Russian President Putin was also invited. February 12, 2015, the Minsk 2 agreement was signed by Poroshenko, Merkel, Hollande and Putin. Actually the same agreement as before. Heavy artillery would be withdrawn 50 km from the front, eastern Ukraine would gain greater autonomy, and the Russian language would be one of the official languages of the region, the other Ukrainian. After Minsk 2 was signed, the captured Kiev soldiers were allowed to leave the area.

Unfortunately, peace never came to pass. Poroshenko later admitted in June 2022 on Ukrainian Television that the Minsk agreements were just intended to gain time to gather a larger and better armed army to send and capture the Donbass. Also former German Chancellor Merkel admitted on December 7, 2022 in an interview in the German newspaper Die Zeit that “it was clear to all of us that the conflict was stalling, that the problem had not been solved, but it gave Ukraine valuable time to become stronger“.

The war continued regardless, with new attacks by the Kiev fascists on the Donbass, and heavy weapons were placed right at the line of contact between the combatants, which was prohibited by Minsk 2. It was 8 years of constant daily attacks without success but with many wounded and dead in Lugansk and Donetsk. During these years, the dead in Lugansk and Donetsk are estimated at over 13,000 people. It turned out, as the fascist Poroshenko said in a famous speech in the Odessa Opera House, that the children of Donbass were allowed to live in the basement and the pensioners who had worked all their lives and paid for their pensions received no money.

This terrible reality continued when Ukraine got a new President in 2019. Zelensky’s biggest and foremost election promises that earned him a landslide victory in both presidential and parliamentary elections were promises of peace. Zelensky promised to abide by the Minsk agreements and bring peace to Ukraine. That’s not what happened. After a few months, Zelensky changed his mind and the focus of his policies became: increased war against the Donbass, a war without successes but with many dead.

The situation became more and more violent with Zelensky as an agitator for extended war. The accumulation of new and more modern heavy weapons at the front line in Donbass became increasingly large, while the number of soldiers in the Ukrainian army and mercenaries increased all the time. At the end of 2021, the combined force was estimated at over a hundred thousand men equipped with modern weaponry, a gift from the West, mainly the United States and the EU.

A decision for the Kiev fascists to take over the Donbass was once again in preparation. By the end of 2021, the situation was alarming for the population of Donbass. Russian President Putin then made contact with several leaders in the West, including Germany and France, and also with the UN Secretary-General to get them to act to get Kiev to respect the Minsk agreements. Putin could not make anyone take an interest in this matter. Actually, everyone knew that soon the Kiev fascists would start a major invasion of the Donbass but no one wanted to act.

Another step to war came on February 2, 2022. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba then declared that Ukraine would never give Donetsk and Luganks a special status under the Minsk agreements, a statement he repeated a week later. It was a clear message about what to expect and so it was perceived in Donetsk and Lugansk and also in Russia, which was one of the countries that signed and guaranteed the Minsk agreements. The Minsk agreements were the guarantor of peace in the area. When Kuleba and the Ukrainian government rejected the Minsk agreements they signalled the start of the war.

The situation got worse. At the Munich Security Conference, Zelensky was present and gave a speech on February 19, 2022. There he addressed and questioned the 1994 Budapest Treaty, an agreement on the Soviet nuclear weapons concluded between the United States, Britain and Russia. Zelensky was the first ever to question the Budapest Agreement. According to the agreement, the Soviet nuclear weapons deployed in Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine had to be handed over to Russia. This was the case even if the Ukrainian right did not want to but was forced to do so by the United States. Nuclear weapons in Belarus and Kazakhstan were mounted on mobile devices, large trucks and were soon handed over to Russia. In Ukraine, the Soviet nuclear weapons were located in underground stationary depots. Ukraine handed warheads in these nuclear weapons to Russia but the rockets themselves were allowed to remain in Ukraine, as demanded by right-wing politicians, and so it was with the consent of the United States. These rockets have been maintained throughout the years and although today they are not modern, they are completely usable. Zelensky’s questioning of the Budapest Agreement and Kuleba’s declaration that Ukraine would not respect the Minsk agreements and give Donetsk and Lugansk special status were seen in Russia as another step to a larger war. The world was warned. It was the last straw for Russia and Putin. Five days after Zelensky’s questioning of the Budapest Agreement, Russia entered Ukraine.

Postscript

Who is Zelensky?

How come Zelensky became president of Ukraine?

Zelensky is an actor who broke through as a comedian in the 2000s, a so-called stand-up comedian. He appeared in many places and drew full houses. After that, he made several film comedies with great success. But the big break came with the film Servant of the People in 2015.

There he played a shy and reclusive small-town teacher who by chance was appointed President of Ukraine at a time when the country was in great economic and social trouble. With a little laughter and calm advice, the shy and reclusive small-town teacher, Zelensky, was able to get the country back on its feet, bring about the recovery of the economy and solve all the problems.

The movie magnates understood that here there was money to be made. The film became a television series that began in 2016 to continue with a second and third series that ended in April 2019 – right up to and during the presidential election campaign!

Zelensky was then a very popular person. A man whose screen persona people identified with. But sometimes it is difficult for many to distinguish between film and reality. Such things can give a boost to the cash register.

The March 31, 2019 presidential election was a battle between Ukrainian dollar billionaires Poroshenko, the incumbent President who wanted another term as President, and Igor Kolomoysky, whose actions were also instrumental in the fascist coup d’état in Ukraine on February 22, 2014. Even before the coup d’état, Kolomoysky had formed a guard force of several hundred armed men whom he could send on a mission to kill and beat people who wanted a traditional bourgeois democracy. It was Igor Kolomoysky’s troops who were behind the murders in the trade union house in Odessa and the police station in Mariupol.

Igor Kolomoysky saw his business interests and he himself threatened by Poroshenko during his first presidential term. Kolomoysky then moved to Israel where he lived during those years. He did not want Poroshenko as president for a second term. He had to find someone who could knock out Poroshenko. This is where Zelensky comes into the picture. Kolomoysky invited Zelensky to his house in Israel and the negotiations there resulted in Zelensky as a presidential candidate.

Zelensky would not otherwise have been involved in politics. With Kolomoysky’s money, Zelensky launched an extensive election campaign, portraying himself as the People’s President, and he chose  for his new party the name ‘The Servants of the People’, the same name as the famous film and television series.

The power of the mass media over man is unimaginably great. With a corps of election workers from film and theatre and with cunning and deception, Zelensky scored an unimaginable victory over Poroshenko. In the second round of the presidential election on April 21, Zelensky received over 73% of the vote against Poroshenko’s just over 25%. In the parliamentary elections, Zelensky’s The Servants of the People party won 223 seats against all the other parties’ 114 seats. A comedian became the President of Ukraine with all power over the country’s parliament. But not quite. Zelensky does as billionaire Kolomoysky decides. And Kolomoysky as the United States decides.

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