MOSCOW, October 22. /TASS/. The West is unable to save Ukraine from its own political elite and change the country’s policy, but it should rebuke Kiev for failing to abide by its commitments and declare an international boycott, leading research fellow at the Institute for International Studies at the MGIMO University, Nikolai Silayev, said in a TASS-hosted online round-table discussion devoted to the outlook for a settlement in the east of Ukraine.
He believes that what is happening in Ukraine these days cannot be blamed entirely on external influences.
"Ukrainian statehood is in a deep crisis," he said. Ukrainian politicians, he warned, continue to deal hard blows to it. "In a situation like this, is it possible for some external actor, say, the United States, the European Union, France or Germany, to save Ukraine from itself, from its own political elite? I very much doubt that," he said.
At the same time, Silayev believes that the West is obliged to express its attitude to what has been happening in Ukraine. In his opinion, the Western countries could make it quite clear to Kiev that "the Minsk Accords must be complied with and that there is clear evidence Ukraine defies them and undermines them, and to properly assess these facts of life."
Silayev believes that "a government that behaves like the Ukrainian one, in particular, under President Vladimir Zelensky, that violates its own international agreements that it has signed, its own promises made at summit level talks and its own Constitution, in particular those clauses of it that concern the observance of the rights of its citizens, including the people in Donbass, a government like this deserves international isolation."
True, such isolation, he remarked, is unlikely to bring about instant and considerable changes in Kiev’s policies. "But the major powers, like Germany and France, will at least retain their moral authority, which is rapidly wearing thin," he said.