“Should only ashes remain”
Medvedev names puppet state as a war goal
8/20/2023 3:37 am
What does Russia want in Ukraine? According to Security Council Deputy Medvedev, the complete annihilation of the state there and a puppet government. “Even if it takes decades.” The conflict is a “war of self-preservation” for Russia.
A year and a half ago, Russia invaded Ukraine on a broad front. The rapid capture of the capital Kiev and the whole country failed. The Russian army controls areas in the east and south-east, the front lines are only shifting slightly. Russia’s leadership is counting on signs of fatigue in the Western alliance, Dmitri Medvedev, Vice Chairman of the Russian Security Council, has now said, according to the Russian News Agency Tass Written on Telegram: “We’ll make it.”
The “nationalist regime (in Kiev) should be swept off the face of the earth,” Medvedev is quoted as saying. “It will take time. Western governments will change, their elites will tire and beg for negotiations and freeze the conflict, completely dismantled.”
Medvedev is thus expressing different war goals than those that Moscow had publicly declared at the beginning of August. Kremlin spokesman Dimitri Peskov said that Russia wanted to completely conquer the “constitutional” areas. These include Crimea and the Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhia and Kherson oblasts.
Medvedev now says something else: the goal is to overthrow the government in Kiev, bring Ukraine under complete control and install a puppet state. If it takes years or even decades, so be it, he wrote.
“Complete Obliteration”
Under no circumstances should it be allowed for “this dirt” to return to Kiev: “Only ashes should remain of it.” Russia has no other choice, said Medvedev. “Either we will destroy their enemy leadership, or the collective West will end up tearing Russia apart. In that case, it will die with us.”
“The complete obliteration of the state apparatus and a guarantee of absolute future loyalty” are therefore necessary. This is only possible if Russia gains control over everything that is happening and will happen on the territory of the former Ukraine. The West’s sanctions against Russia would not be able to prevent this, according to Medvedev: “The defeat of the West and Ukraine is inevitable.”
For the former President, the crucial difference lies in the reason for the war. “For them, it’s a war abroad, where people they don’t know are dying.” The West will never harm its own interests, Medvedev wrote. “A distant war will sooner or later become boring, expensive and unimportant.” For Russia, on the other hand, it is a tragedy of its own people: “This is an existential conflict. This is a war of self-preservation. It’s either them or us.”