The Scam of Ukrainian Democracy by Justin K.P./The Dissident (Reprinted with permission)
https://substack.com/home/post/p-216027873
The big lie from the West used to continue the unwinnable proxy war in Ukraine is the claim that the Ukrainian regime needs to be armed and funded by the West in order to preserve “democracy”. This is nothing but a lie, used to justify propping up an authoritarian regime, which will forcibly send its people to the front line at the behest of its Western sponsors, who want to use Ukraine, and its people as pawns to “weaken Russia”.
As for any Ukrainian who thinks maybe having their country destroyed in an unwinnable proxy war is not in the interest of the Ukrainian people, they are faced with severe state repression. (Editor’s Note: Zelenskyy was elected by 73% of Ukrainian voters on a platform of peace with Russia. His term as President ended in May of 2024, with Ukraine now under martial law and no elections scheduled.”)
Most recently the Zelenskyy regime has put sanctions on Iuliia Mendel, Zelenskyy’s former press secretary, who has bravely spoken out against the Zelenskyy regime and the West for using Ukraine as a proxy to fight Russia, exposing the fact that the U.S. and UK blocked the peace deal negotiated in Istanbul in April of 2022, and criticizing the West’s push for NATO expansion noting that “Uncompromising stance on ‘NATO membership’ means we are knowingly sacrificing tens or hundreds of thousands of lives right now for a theoretical promise of security sometime in the distant future… a promise that may never actually be kept, because the political will in key NATO capitals simply isn’t there and may never be”.
For this, the Zelenskyy regime imposed sanctions on Mendel for supposedly “spreading ‘disinformation and Russian propaganda’ and supporting ‘Russia’s aggressive policy against Ukraine.’” This is just an outright lie. Iuliia Mendel strongly opposes the Russian invasion of Ukraine and has consistently criticized Russian actions in Ukraine.
Despite her consistent opposition to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Iuliia Mendel has been labeled a traitor by the Ukrainian regime because, along with her criticisms of Russia, she has also criticized her own government and the West for continuing the unwinnable proxy war destroying her country. “There is a feeling that the Western political establishment would rather see Russia burn than Ukraine saved”, she correctly noted today.
A look at Mendel’s work clearly shows she cares about her country, and will speak out about anyone she believes is contributing to the destruction of it, whether it be Russia, the West, or her own government. For the crime of wanting to live in peace and not wanting her country destroyed, Mendel has been sanctioned as a traitor by the Ukrainian regime propped up in the West as a “democracy”.
This is far from the first case of the Ukrainian regime sanctioning its domestic critics. In May of last year, the Zelenskyy regime similarly placed sanctions on the Ukrainian political scientist Konstantin Bondarenko after he published his well-researched and informative book, “The Joker: The True Story Of Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s rise to power”. (Editor’s Note: Prior to Zelenskyy’s election, he was a comedic actor in a Russian language TV show, “Servant of the People”, portraying a comedian who became President of Ukraine.)
Like Mendel, Bondarenko strongly condemned what he called Russia’s “aggression against Ukraine”, but also criticized the West for provoking the aggression through the (CIA backed) 2014 Maidan coup, NATO expansion, and blocking the Istanbul agreements in April of 2022, as well as the Ukrainian government for using the war to usher in authoritarian policies, writing “By 2023, it became clear that the Zelenskyy who came to power amid expectations of greater freedom (and peace with Russia), and was seen as something positive and fresh in the stale system of corrupt Ukrainian political life had turned into a morose dictator and despot, a fanatic ready to imprison all dissenters and suspects, while sending Ukrainian civilians to the frontlines”.