Vladimir Putin could try to partition the country after botched invasion fails to overthrow the government, say intelligence services
ByOur Foreign Staff. 27 March 2022 • 4:36pm
Russia plans to split Ukraine into a European equivalent of North and South Korea, Ukraine’s intelligence chief has said.
Kyrylo Budanov said Vladimir Putin’s failure to capture Kyiv and overthrow the government could mean he tries to partition the country.
Mr Budanov said: “There are reasons to believe that he may try to impose a separation line between the occupied and unoccupied regions of our country. In fact, it will be an attempt to set up South and North Koreas in Ukraine.”
His comments came shortly after a breakaway region in eastern Ukraine said that it wanted to hold a referendum on becoming part of Russia.
The partition of the Korean Peninsula after the end of the Second World War led to the 1950-53 Korean War, which pitched China-backed Communist forces against US and UK-backed South Korean forces.
“The invaders will try to set up some quasi-state as an alternative to independent Ukraine,” Mr Budanov said.
“We can see attempts to set up ‘parallel’ local governments in occupied areas and to force people to give up the Ukrainian currency.”
The Russian president justified invading Ukraine by accusing Kyiv of planning atrocities against the Luhansk People’s Republic and the Donetsk People’s Republic, which broke away from Ukraine after the war in 2014.
Just before this year’s war broke out, the Kremlin recognised their independence – but now the Luhansk People’s Republic has said that it plans to hold a referendum to become part of the Russian state.
“I think that in the near future a referendum will be held on the territory of the republic, at which the people will exercise their absolute constitutional right and express their opinion on joining the Russian Federation,” said Leonid Pasechnik, the de facto head of the Luhansk People’s Republic.
The Kremlin annexed Crimea in 2014, but it has not officially responded to the prospect of allowing the Luhansk People’s Republic to become part of Russia. A Russian senator, though, said that both breakaway states had the right to join Russia.
Ukraine’s foreign ministry also responded to the Luhansk referendum, saying ‘fake votes’ had no basis in international law
Russia’s war in Ukraine has faltered badly. Rather than an easy and glorious conquest of the whole of the country and the installation of a pro-Moscow government, Western intelligence officers have said that Putin may have to settle for just securing control only over part of the country.
From Telegraph comments :
Robert Alan Sutton:
“One problem with such a referendum has been the depopulation of these breakaway republics since their formation. Over half of their populations have left, either to Russia itself or to Ukraine, not as the Putinists would claim because of “ethnic cleansing” but because there is no work in these regions and no real reason to stay. Many of the mines have flooded and much of the industry has shut down or is on short time. Meanwhile there has been minimal investment in the area
All that is left is a rump population of pensioners, army, police, and those unwilling or unable to move elsewhere. So who gets the vote? Just the rump or do you allow the displaced to vote as well? presumably the displaced will be excluded as they would vote “no” to joining the super “Russian Federation”.
S T Smyth
“Why should Putin and his gang have any of the brave Ukrainian’s country? Night after night we watch on television the appalling war crimes this savage “leader” has inflicted on a people who have infuriated him by making a success of their country since the Orange revolution. The horrors of civilians bombed in their homes, pregnant women murdered in the maternity hospital, the Russian soldiers raping Ukrainian women, forced transportation, a savage war of primitive criminality unfolding nightly on our television screens.
It is time for Britain and the EU to step up to the plate further, and give the courageous Ukrainians the armaments they have asked for. Putin has to be crushed or he will bide his time and then try again, probably also having a go at the Baltic states. Instead of Biden mouthing platitudes he should ensure that the Polish jets which were offered by Poland to Ukraine are delivered.”
Thanks ST! Good comment!
I get frustrated with Zelensky saying that he would accept some sort of compromise. Such a compromise would be foolish. It’s like leaving an abscess in the body. You simply set the body up for another assault from a position of strength. Russia must be pushed totally out of the internationally recognized boundaries of Ukraine.
This might be putler’s fallback position, who knows? But it’s all fraught with danger.
I do rather see a bosnian scenario, one state comprised of two autonomous entities. But i doubt RuSSia can militarily achieve this.
I doubt it too, the demented dwarf has been wrong about everything else anyway. The more he tries to divide Ukrainians the more they come together. He just fundamentally doesn’t understand Ukrainians, freedom, democracy or liberty. I guess that’s what happens when you stop changing the calendars since 1986.
The Russian occupied part will be the North Korea part of level.
“Russia plans to split Ukraine into a European equivalent of North and South Korea, Ukraine’s intelligence chief has said.”
The rat can’t achieve this when he loses this war, and he will lose. He better watch out for a bullet in his head or a polonium pellet in his leg or exploding elevators.