Russian troops in Donetsk and Luhansk: Putin’s cynical plan

Sending Russian troops to eastern Ukraine follows President Putin’s cynical escalation plan, opines Eckhart Aretz. It is to be feared that Putin will target other areas – in eastern Ukraine and beyond.

After weeks of targeted escalation, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has confirmed all allegations and assumptions made against him. The recognition of the cynically referred to as the People’s Republics of Donetsk and Luhansk and the immediate deployment of troops are the result of brutal calculations and a precise plan – and may not be the last step in Putin’s attempt to restore the dominion of the Soviet Union.

Out of consideration for China’s leadership, the Russian president waited for the end of the Olympic Games in Beijing before officially invading a region that he had first destabilized since 2014 and then wrested from Ukraine’s control.

The war in the neighboring country was also Putin’s war from the start. At the time, Russia wanted to prevent Ukraine from moving closer to the European Union by any means necessary, and also did not want the Ukrainian people to determine their government themselves – and thus possibly give the Russian people ideas that Putin deeply despises and fears.

Territories of the Grace of Russia

Since then, the Donetsk and Luhansk regions have never been independent, but completely dependent on Moscow and its respective deliberations. Russia has been generously distributing passports in the areas for years, thus creating the basis for the scenario that has now been implemented.

The fact that the Duma asked Putin to recognize the separatist areas on the day of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s mediation attempt seemed ordered a week ago – and incidentally like a well-placed slap in the face for Scholz, who in the Kremlin is acting as an extra for Putin’s role of innocence and besides allowed to stand while Putin formulated statesmanlike skepticism.

Just an intermediate step?

It is to be feared that Putin’s hunger for land is far from satisfied. This is shocking news for the people in eastern Ukraine, because the suspicion is justified that Russia is now working towards a scenario in which it breaks out further regions from Ukraine and, for example, creates a land corridor to Crimea.

The contempt with which Putin spoke of Ukraine’s statehood in his televised address yesterday suggests that Russia will continue to use any means necessary to undermine the country’s stability and may even try to reclaim the center and west of the country to incorporate The fact that the long-term ruler in the Kremlin accused Ukraine of nationalism and a corrupt form of government in which oligarchs fought for power in this context is particularly perfidious – what better description of Putin’s own system?

Warning to the ex-Soviet republics

At the same time, Putin’s speech was an unmistakable warning to the former Soviet republics that chose the path to independence in 1990. His assertion that this decision may have been made too soon must have alarmed them – particularly the Baltic states and Georgia, which have moved particularly far away from Russia.

It is all the more important that Russia has to pay the announced high price for its expansion policy, so that those close to Putin in particular feel what this policy is costing them. Since yesterday evening there has been no return to the Minsk peace process, and all diplomatic attempts by the West with far-reaching offers have failed. Now it’s all about credible countermeasures – to save Ukraine, but also to protect the former Warsaw Pact states from Russia and to defend the existing order in the rest of Europe.

After all, Putin’s demand for the withdrawal of US troops from Europe is still in the world. The West must therefore also consider whether it should support Ukraine much more militarily. Putin, as he made clear yesterday, is not interested in diplomacy and despises it as an expression of weakness.

At Russia’s expense

The victims are already the people in the war zone and in Russia. The fighting in Ukraine has claimed 13,000 lives since 2014, and many more may be added.

Russia, which is dramatically behind in modernizing because of Putin’s backward understanding of politics and history, will continue to stagnate under the looming sanctions of the West and meanwhile squander its wealth on weapons, wars and securing the rule of Putin’s clique. Yesterday, Russian television may have reported on people waving flags in eastern Ukraine and in Russia – February 21 was also a shockingly black day for 144 million Russians.