Roman Svitan in his interview to the Fabryka News revels recent updates at the frontlines including about he Ukrainian Armed Forces breakthrough by 50 km, opening the path to Moscow Donbas has been saved, NATO reinforcements have arrived and recent Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s statement about ceasefire.
Yevheniya Kutnova: Volodymyr Zelensky gave an interview to the podcaster Friedman in which he was quite emotional and even used offensive language, but what did he say? He said that Ukraine would agree to a ceasefire if it were provided with weapons for protection against potential future attacks. He also mentioned the order of negotiations to end the war, stating that the first negotiations should take place with Trump after his inauguration, and only then with Putin, provided that the American leader offers strong security guarantees for Ukraine. How do you interpret all these statements? Can we say that this already reflects a certain position that has been formed?
Roman Svitan: Well, this is his personal position. What does Ukraine have to do with it? Ukraine has nothing to do with this position. It’s his personal stance, and later, it will be dealt with under Article 110 or 111 by counterintelligence. Because these are essentially calls for changing the territorial structure.
What does it mean to stop hostilities? Is it about giving up our territories? Leaving Russian troops on the occupied territories? This is purely a surrender. Talking about it means Article 110 at least, and it could lead to a life sentence with full confiscation of property. So it’s unclear who is preparing these speeches for him. Most likely, it’s the same people involved with bureaucratic opportunists who don’t understand these matters. At least they should have read the Criminal Code. It’s clearly laid out there. So there’s no point in even discussing this.
There is no technical possibility for it. We’ve talked about this so many times. Ukrainian society will not stop until it liberates its territories. At least 1% of the warriors in Ukrainian society, the Cossacks, will definitely keep fighting. No one will stop them in this sense of military actions while Russian soldiers remain on our land, in Donetsk, Crimea, Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Luhansk, Kharkiv, and so on. So, this is in the realm of fantasy, so to speak.
What’s the point of talking about it?
There’s no point in making statements that could lead to Article 110 charges. Let them say whatever they want; it’s up to them. And by the way, Article 110 is quite serious. If there’s a call to action, for example, that’s already a direct violation under Article 111.
If anyone signs any documents related to the loss of our territory, no matter the mechanisms – whether it’s a ceasefire, a freeze, or anything else – that’s still a concession of territory because Russian control would remain.
And that means agreeing to cede land, which is already a case for Article 111 – treason. There’s even more to it than that. What’s next? A shooting squad?
There’s nothing beyond that. So this is in the realm of, I don’t know, what exactly, it’s hard to understand why this is being done. For how many years now, people have been telling these fairytales that everyone is surrendering, starting with looking us in the eye and ending with some kind of ceasefire.
There are talks of guarantees. The guarantees for our integrity and sovereignty are a strong army, our own strong army, and nuclear weapons – our own nuclear weapons. At the very least, what could still be acceptable is restoring our status as a nuclear power by joining NATO. And again, entering a nuclear exchange program – this has been discussed before as well. When we have nuclear weapons stationed here, such as American B61-12 bombs, which are currently in five European countries under this program – Turkey, Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy, and Germany – Poland will likely join soon as well.
Only after this can we talk about security guarantees. What are security guarantees, for example, a piece of paper? Well, that’s just through some mechanisms to initiate, perhaps, legal processes, nothing more. Therefore, the optimal option is joining NATO and entering the nuclear exchange program, or restoring our nuclear status through the production of our own nuclear weapons. This is the only situation where we can talk about security guarantees. Everything else is surrendering our national interests, losing sovereignty, and losing territorial integrity. So there’s no point in talking about these
discussions. They simply don’t exist. And the fact that they’ve been talking about it for so many years is just demotivating – these discussions demotivate the soldiers at the front lines. What soldier would risk their life or carry out combat tasks if ahead of them lies a freeze of hostilities and the cessation of the war? It’s demotivation. For this alone, they should be judged.
Yevheniya Kutnova: By the way, this was mentioned by the commander of the 3rd Assault Brigade, Andriy Biletsky, who also expressed the opinion that this is a demotivating factor. Nevertheless, Roman Hryhorovych, a visit from Kit Kellogg to Ukraine is expected. What do you expect from this visit? Could he arrive with any proposals, or how should we interpret this?
Roman Svitan: He will come with his own vision, and in order to prepare some groundwork for future coordination of actions, he just needs to align those actions that are necessary and important for us, at least from the Americans. If they’re going to participate in our war against Russia. If not, then what’s the point of his visit? What for? To just listen to him? We’ve been listening to Biden for how long, Sullivan, and all the rest. So, there’s no point in listening just for the sake of it. But the Americans definitely have the capacity to help. Moreover, they can help us, help Europe, and help themselves first and foremost.
Because the Biden administration – it’s a group of wimps that has ruined America’s reputation, including its military standing. They need to restore it, and Trump is clearly talking about this. Great America will try to restore itself, and we can help with that. Our only mechanism here is to use their military potential.
Use it to show that the Americans have the best weapons, the best in the world. In fact, they do have the best in the world in some areas. We can use it and showcase it to the whole world, especially their adversaries – China, Russia, Iran, North Korea – saying that this weapon, if it lands on their soil, they won’t be happy to see it. The optimal option for us is to receive this weapon through lend-lease. By the way, the Republicans proposed this lend-lease back in 2022. Biden signed it, but we didn’t receive anything because our ambassador wasn’t exactly in the right direction, at the very least. So, if we launch the lend-lease process again and bring it up to several billion dollars in American military supplies, we’d be better off paying for it with Russian reparations and contributions – about half a trillion dollars if that pressure falls on them for this lend-lease. The Americans will definitely take their share, no problem.
The faster Russia collapses. So, this moment is important, especially in terms of military assistance. But if the Americans can’t launch such a mechanism, then they are absolutely useless to us. They can’t help us in any way – they can only hinder us. The only thing left for them are certain obligations under the Budapest Memorandum. Even without any involvement in our war, if they simply launch an oil extraction mechanism, the price of oil would naturally drop to $40. If that happens, Russia won’t survive. In a year, there will simply be no Russia. So, from the Americans, there are just two things: extract your own oil as much as you want, increase oil production, and naturally, if they’re so kind, provide us with lend-lease. This is one of the mechanisms to activate the obligations under the Budapest Memorandum.
Yevheniya Kutnova: But if we talk about the Budapest Memorandum, particularly, the president also mentioned it in this interview, well, the implementation of it by our partners, those who actually signed it, with full—I’m not going to quote the offensive language. Nevertheless, Roman Hryhorovych, if it’s not lend-lease, but if Trump comes out and says, “Sit down at the negotiating table, or else we won’t give you funding,” what then? Where do we end up? What should we do then? Is this Plan B, or how do we proceed?
Roman Svitan: Well, first of all, the Budapest Memorandum hasn’t been activated. They signed it, but what is the Budapest Memorandum? You can consider it roughly on the level of a declaration of intent. In the end, the Americans are there, and according to American legislation, even such a declaration of intent, if you’ve actually fulfilled it – and Ukraine fulfilled all the conditions of this memorandum, we gave up our nuclear weapons – then, in essence, all the signatories of this memorandum are obliged to take certain actions, which we should have requested. Let someone from our leadership explain what actions they took under the Budapest Memorandum to activate this mechanism. The first thing we should have done is request consultations under the Budapest Memorandum, so that the Americans, the British, the Russians, the Chinese, and the other five countries – what is it, the French? – would have initiated consultations on this issue, regarding the attack of nuclear powers on a non-nuclear country, as per the memorandum. Did any of the great leaders who are now governing, or rather trying to govern Ukraine, initiate any action? Has anyone approached any of these countries to request consultations? And the question is, why didn’t they do this? This is a clear case of treason if they didn’t approach the signatories of the memorandum – that’s one thing. Secondly, this is a question for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, for our great ministers and ambassadors – did they request clarification from the United Nations or from the international court regarding this memorandum? Take the initiative and ask. There is precedent law in America. The American signature is on it. In all states, except for Louisiana, which, when it was still under French control before selling it to the Americans, kept the Napoleonic Code. In Louisiana, civil law is slightly different from other states. But in most American states, there’s clear precedent law, and even just the intent, if one party has fulfilled it, already constitutes a real contract. So, request clarification from the United Nations or the International Court, based on American law. They’ll explain everything – who is responsible for what under the Budapest Memorandum. And trust me, there will be huge problems, at least for Russia and China. At least those two countries will face severe problems. So, has anyone done this? I mean, it’s pointless to swear in one direction – look in the mirror. Maybe something doesn’t look right there? You need to take action, gather professionals for the team, not goof-offs but real professionals. If you gather professionals, then everything will look and be perceived differently. And again, who prepared the Budapest Memorandum? Chaly? And who prepared the Istanbul agreement about the surrender of Crimea and Donbas? Chaly? Where did he come from? Who sent him to Istanbul? Was it the office? So, instead of swearing, maybe swear at yourself. Set up the entire bureaucracy, all these bureaucratic rats, and curse them from morning till night so they understand they’re not eating their fair share. At the very least, they’re not professionally suited for this direction. The question is, why would anyone force us to sit at the negotiation table? What for? To do what? To sit, drink tea, and then leave? What’s the goal? Capitulation? No, we won’t do that. There’s no mechanism for the capitulation of Ukraine, Ukrainian society, or the Ukrainian army. There’s not even a legal mechanism for capitulation. All these people talk about some ceasefire or peace agreements, but it won’t happen. Because we’re a 40 million-strong country, now down to 35 million. 1% of warriors who will never reconcile, 350,000 people who are fighting now, and they’ll keep fighting for their independence, their homeland, their homes, and the graves of their fathers left in Donetsk, Crimea, and elsewhere. How are you going to stop them? Who will stop them? Trump or someone, Kellogg, or anyone who comes and says, “Oh, don’t go there, your people are all gone, they’ve been dispersed”? That won’t happen. So, all these discussions at this level, especially with emotional overtones, are meaningless. There are no actions from all the rhetoric that’s being thrown around in the information space. We’ve been hearing this for years. So, at the moment, it’s just air shaking – nothing more.
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