Yatsenyuk: No more pro-Russian govt in Ukraine, but anti-Western narratives still find support
After the end of hostilities, Russia will undoubtedly try to establish an anti-Western regime in Ukraine, and some Ukrainians are ready to accept the corresponding narratives despite the fact that the establishment of an openly pro-Russian government here will no longer be possible, Head of Kyiv Security Forum, former Prime Minister of Ukraine (2014-2016) Arseniy Yatsenyuk has said.
In an interview with Interfax-Ukraine, he said that in a recent sociological study, which, in particular, concerned democracy in Ukraine, there was a question of whether Ukrainians would accept the model that exists in Georgia. "If we asked directly whether you would accept a pro-Russian regime in Ukraine, more than 90% of Ukrainians would say 'no.' When you ask about Georgia, it's not about Russia. What did we see? Two-thirds are categorically against the Georgian model, but a significant part of the respondents are not against it," Yatsenyuk said.
"Do you understand what a trick it is: there will be no pro-Russian regime in Ukraine, but an anti-Western one is possible? But the essence is the same. Anti-Western rhetoric is in fact pro-Russian. That is, part of the population is ready to accept anti-Western narratives that correspond to Russia," he added.
The head of Kyiv Security Forum believes that Ukraine "will not return to 2010, when Yanukovych won the elections," but expressed his belief that Russia will interfere in Ukrainian politics one way or another after the end of hostilities.
"Will Russia try to establish an anti-Western regime here? I have no doubts. And therefore, anyone who thinks that the end of the war through a written or unwritten truce will be the end of the war is deeply mistaken. This may be the end of hostilities. And the war, as Russia's existential war against Ukraine, will continue until Ukraine becomes so strong under the umbrella of NATO and the European Union that Russia realizes that it has lost Ukraine forever, just as it lost the Baltic countries and Eastern Europe," Yatsenyuk said.
