Maidan 3? Zelensky Has Good Reason to be Scared of Regime Change - US Vet
14:22 GMT 22.11.2023 (Updated: 12:29 GMT 25.02.2024)
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While Ukraine was celebrating the 10th anniversary of the beginning of the 2014 Maidan coup in Kiev, President Volodymyr Zelensky confessed he fears a "Maidan 3." US military veteran and international affairs analyst Mark Sleboda explained on Sputnik's Backstory podcast why Zelensky is so scared.
Volodymyr Zelensky knows that the writing for him is already on the wall, as the West is looking for a more convenient figure to replace him, says Mark Sleboda, an international affairs and security analyst. Hence, Zelensky has incessantly claimed in recent interviews with the Western press that "the Russians" want to stir up a "Maidan 3" in Ukraine in order to oust him.
The president's words about the third "maidan" ("square") is a reference to two coups which took place on Independence Square in central Kiev in 2004 and 2014. The latter brought to power Western-backed ultra-nationalists who started an all-out war against Russian-speakers in the east of the country.
"One of the important things to remember is that until that putsch, that 'revolution of dignity' backed by the US and the EU, in Ukraine's constitution it was necessitated that they remain a neutral state. They had to remain neutral. They could not join NATO. They could not join the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty organization. When the new West-backed regime seized power they, of course, completely got rid of that aspect of the Constitution," Mark Sleboda told Sputnik.
"And it is fascinating that today they're celebrating the anniversary of the beginning of this Maidan. But just a few days ago, Zelensky was publicly saying that he feared a 'third Maidan', tacitly admitting that the Maidan is a fraud, that the original Maidan was a foreign-inspired putsch to overthrow the government, [which was] lacking any legitimacy. And he is now saying that he fears another one of the same, which, you know, is a really interesting commentary of his celebration of what happened now."
While the Ukrainian president presented zero evidence to back his claims of Russia preparing a coup in Kiev, there are clear indications of the ongoing internal battle between the Zelensky cabinet and Ukrainian top brass, according to Sleboda.
One of them was a famous "stalemate" interview given by Commander-in-Chief of Ukrainian Armed Forces Gen. Valery Zaluzhny to the Economist, later scolded by Zelensky. Another one was a mysterious death of Zaluzhny's aide who was blasted by a grenade on his birthday on November 6. Earlier, on November 3, Zelensky unilaterally dismissed Viktor Khorenko, who was known to be close to Zaluzhny, from the post of commander of special operations forces. Likewise, the commander of the medical forces Tatyana Ostashchenko was replaced with Anatoly Kazmirchuk by the Kiev regime without consulting Ukraine's top general.
"That's just become abundantly clear in the recent days as this political rift, as The New York Times has openly referred to it, between the Kiev regime's political and military leadership, between Zelensky and Zaluzhny, the Kiev regime's top general. And just today, despite these celebrations and the arrival of multiple Western political figures for this occasion – that they're still trying to make a big deal out of – Zelensky once again came with a slap down on Ukraine's military leadership. And it obviously pointed at Zaluzhny. But he warned his generals to stay out of politics or risk harming the unity of the nation."
5 November 2023, 16:18 GMT
This followed Zelensky's rejection to hold elections next spring even though in August the Ukrainian president hinted that the people would cast ballots despite the martial law if the West helps fund and arrange the democratic procedure. For their part, Western leaders pushed the Ukrainian incumbent leader to hold elections in 2024 no matter what. Per Sleboda, they want to get rid of Zelensky through some sort of democratic procedure to keep the appearance of legitimacy of the Ukrainian leadership.
"[Western leaders] want to switch horses within the Maidan regime itself. The switch from one figure to another, they've lost confidence in Zelensky. He has been overruling not only his own generals on the battlefield, but he's been more importantly, he's been overruling NATO's planned offensive for him. Which was this big push to the south, when they complained that he was diverting forces to the east and keep trying to hold on to and then retake back moot and how much he wasted on that. They're very upset about that. Their whole offensive was not only a catastrophe, it was a laughing stock, really. And they've lost confidence in him as a result. And all the indications are they want Zaluzhny to take over, but they can't go through another openly US backed coup in the country so soon after the last one. You know, they want the veneer, the appearance of elections to do this."
However, it seems that Zelensky does not want to make it any easier for the West: the Ukrainian president and his entourage are doing everything to prevent this power change from happening, according to Sleboda.
"So this type of open warfare and I believe that's why the CIA director, William Burns, was in Kiev at the end of last week on a surprise visit. And just a few days later, the US secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, was in Kiev on Monday. And it all appears that the US is trying to tamp this down to prevent it from becoming too open. Trying to stop the rift from getting out of their control and becoming some type of open warfare on the streets of Kiev, within the regime itself," Sleboda underscored.
21 November 2023, 14:31 GMT
