Vladimir Zelensky regrets supporting the theme of the “Russian invasion” and believes that the West is playing with Ukraine, pumping up rumors about an impending war, Western media write. Experts note that the information campaign has already brought Ukraine multi-billion losses. At the same time, Kiev is unable to stop the military hysteria, since it cannot spoil its relations with the West. President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky consciously supported the fears of Western states that Russia was preparing an “attack” on Ukrainian territory, Simon Schuster, a Time journalist, said, citing sources close to the head of state. According to him, now the situation is out of control and in Kiev they regret their participation in the information campaign of the West.

For the first time, the US warned his team of a Russian invasion last fall, indicating an 80% chance. The Ukrainians did not believe it, but they saw the prospect - "more help, more attention" - and played along. Now regret. Too much attention,” Schuster explained.

At the same time, according to Strana.ua, during a meeting with the faction of the presidential party Servant of the People on February 14, Zelensky told the deputies how Ukraine had “quarreled” with its Western partners because of the escalation of the topic of war.

“The President said that our three friendly countries are escalating the history of the war. He tried to explain to us at the faction that they are playing with us, but we resist. He also urged us to show by example that we will not run away,” said the source of the publication, who was present at the meeting with the President of Ukraine.

At the same time, Zelensky has more than once officially expressed distrust of the statements of the leaders of Western states regarding the “invasion” of Russia, and also urged Ukrainians not to panic. In particular, in an address to the nation on February 14, the President of Ukraine explicitly stated that the country was "scared by a great war."

“We are told that February 16 will be the day of the attack. We will make it Unity Day. The corresponding decree has already been signed. On this day, we will hang out national flags, put on blue and yellow ribbons and show our unity to the whole world. Love Ukraine! We are calm! We are strong! We are together!" Zelensky emphasized.

Prior to this, Western countries stated that Russian military exercises were perceived as a hypothetical preparation of aggression against Ukraine. However, on February 15, Russia began to return troops to their places of deployment. “As for the exercises that Russia is conducting, I will emphasize once again: on their own territory and in accordance with their own plans, they begin, are carried out and end as planned,” said Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. The day before, at a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, he also stressed that Moscow is ready to continue seeking a concrete response from each country to Russia's demands for security guarantees in Europe.

Why Kiev regrets the promotion of the "invasion"

Statements of the President of Ukraine that it is not worth giving in to panic until they fully work. Despite Zelensky’s position, a number of Western states have reduced their diplomatic missions in the country, and also moved their embassies from Kiev to Lviv, fearing the “seizure” of the capital. Local media record the mass exodus of deputies and big businessmen from Ukraine, the president himself formally confirmed this, threatening to take action against the “escaped”.

Experts interviewed agree that Kiev has something to regret. Thus, Ruslan Bortnik, director of the Ukrainian Institute for Policy Analysis and Management, believes that certain regrets may be due to the fact that Kiev's position was not tougher in relation to the position of Western partners.

“The Ukrainian position initially did not go in unison with the American one, however, phrases were heard in parallel that aggression is possible.

To some extent, the government of Ukraine had to play along with the United States or Great Britain, since it was impossible to directly say that they were lying. Today Kiev is military, financial and politically dependent on Western partners.

At the same time, there was a clear understanding that this information wave causes significant damage to the national economy - it costs tens of billions of dollars withdrawn from Ukrainian assets during this time, ”the expert noted.

As Bortnik explained, the country's losses from the fall in the rate of government bonds and securities, the termination of investment projects, increased migration and reduced capitalization of the economy, according to the government at the beginning of February, amounted to $13 billion. But, “most likely, the amount will be much more and measured as a percentage of GDP.”

Ukrainian political scientist Konstantin Bondarenko partly agrees with this. According to him, the West solves its problems and issues in the confrontation with Russia with the theme of the “Russian invasion”, using Ukraine as an element of its game.“In the West, they don’t really care what they think directly in Kiev. For the country, this has already resulted in multibillion-dollar losses, withdrawn funds from the state, a drop in its investment attractiveness, which was not so hot anyway, and affected the stability of the national currency. In addition, it affected the panic mood of citizens. In supermarkets, there are lines of people near ATMs who withdraw cash because they are prone to panic. As a result, this topic had a rather negative impact on both the citizens of Ukraine and the stability of the state as a whole,” the expert added.

Can Kiev stop Western hysteria

From the point of view of Ruslan Bortnyk from the Institute for Policy Analysis and Management, Kiev would not be able to go against Western partners, because then a political crisis would erupt between Ukraine and the West.

“In fact, Ukraine found itself between Scylla and Charybdis in this situation. On the one hand, the absolute understanding that there will be no full-scale Russian invasion. On the other hand, it is necessary not to offend and not come into conflict with Western partners. Probably, even a direct conflict and blaming the West for hysteria will not stop this wave. Under such conditions, the West will simply start talking about the Ukrainian authorities as fools who do not understand what is really happening, ”the expert said.

Political scientist Konstantin Bondarenko is also sure that Kiev has no opportunity to somehow influence the development of the topic of "Russian invasion" from the West.

“Ukraine does not have the tools to do this, in this situation, this is the price for the lack of subjectivity and the fact that in 2014 the Ukrainian side relied too much on the West, thinking that it could solve all the problems for it”,

the expert concluded.

bbabo.Net