Nearly nine months after the start of the invasion in Ukraine, the conflict has left more than 100,000 dead or wounded among the armies of both sides, and a military victory is “most likely” impossible for kyiv as for Moscow, according to the declarations of the American Chief of Staff, General Mark Milley, Wednesday, November 9.
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“Today Ukrainians see Russians as having a collective responsibility for what is happening, including those who oppose the war by leaving the countryestimated Anna Colin Lebedev, specialist in post-Soviet societies, guest of Talk franceinfo on Twitch, Wednesday, November 9. We consider that from the moment they did not seek to stop the war, to overthrow the power, they are collectively responsible and they let it happen.
According to the specialist, “On the Russian side, we have almost no awareness of what the army is doing on the ground. The image that the Russians have of this war is very different from the one we have. is witnessing something very radical which for the Ukrainians is a genocide, and you don’t recover from a genocide with a peace agreement.”
In Eastern Ukraine, the two pro-Russian separatist “Republics” of Donbass, Donetsk and Lugansk, crystallize tensions between Russia and the West. These two regions “lived in hatred of kyiv for eight years”continues Anna Colin Lebedev.
“Eight years is the length of schooling for a child. So you have young adults who have only heard the speech ‘kyiv is our enemy’. How do we make these people become Ukrainian again?”
Anna Colin Lebedev, specialist in post-Soviet societiesat franceinfo
“In 8 years, these people have also been under bombs. The question of collaboration, Ukraine is not ready to face it for the moment, but it will be a major subject.”
Could there be peace negotiations? “I left the country thinking, ‘How can they reconcile?’ I have no response”confides the reporter for the international editorial staff of Radio France Gaële Joly, who is returning from Kherson.
Anna Colin Lebedev abounds: “Anyway wars end at some point with the signing of some paper in many cases”. According to the specialist, “As long as Russian power has not changed logic and intention, any negotiation, any ceasefire, any freezing of armed conflict just prepares us for an even bloodier, even more violent future war.”