Vladislav Surkov: Ukraine dreams of Minsk-3, but Russia not going there again

There are people in the Office of the President of Ukraine who dream of concluding another package of Minsk Accords. However, Russia may not agree to such a step, Vladislav Surkov, former assistant to President Putin said in his article "Twilight on the Farm” for Actual Comment.

In his opinion, the Ukrainian authorities do not have a clear plan for further actions:

"Some leaders in Kyiv claim that they have a war plan, while others say that they do not.”

Surkov also pointed out that the Ukrainian people were becoming disillusioned with the Ukrainian leadership.

"Many on Bankovaya (the name of the street where the Office of the Ukrainian President is located — ed.) secretly dream about Minsk-3. In vain. There will be no Minsk-3. Russia is no longer a mediator to sort out its neighbours' squabbles. Russia is now an impatient participant in the great struggle, and it will take its toll. Understand this, pagans,” Surkov wrote.

Surkov believes that the Ukrainian counteroffensive was not planned "according to the rules of science to win." In his opinion, it was based "on the recipes of provincial fortune-telling,” therefore it failed. Now the Ukrainian command hopes to get "an unknown miracle weapon.”

"Twilight. Eve of darkness. There will be no miracle,” Vladislav Surkov added.

It is worthy of note that Surkov is one of the authors of the Minsk agreements (aka the Minsk Accords).

The Minsk agreements were concluded in 2014-2015 by the Trilateral Contact Group for resolving the situation in the Donbass. The group consisted of representatives of Ukraine, Russia and the OSCE. They were supported by the authorities of Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany.

The parties to the conflict undertook to cease fire, refuse to deploy heavy weapons in the buffer zone, and exchange prisoners as per "all for all”. Kyiv was supposed to pass a law about the special status of certain territories of Donetsk and Luhansk regions and hold elections there, taking into account the position of representatives of the Donbass republics. Most of the agreements were not implemented, and the parties continuously blamed each other for that.

Mikhail Podolyak, the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, earlier named three possible outcomes of the military conflict. In the event of defeat in military operations, Ukraine will disappear within a few years, he said. In another negative scenario, a demarcation line and Minsk-3 will emerge, and Ukraine will be disappearing even more slowly.