Russia to never have its own Willy Brandt who acknowledges crimes against Ukrainians – Yatsenyuk
Russia will never be a democratic state and reconciliation with it should not be expected in the coming decades, head of the Kyiv Security Forum (KSF), former Prime Minister of Ukraine (2014-2016) Arseniy Yatsenyuk is convinced.
"We will never see a democratic Russia… Russia, by its very nature, has never been, is not, and will never be a democratic state; this contradicts the essence of the Russian people, Russian culture, and Russian history. An autocratic imperial state whose population is imbued with a militaristic, imperial, aggressive ideology. In our lifetime, we will not reconcile with them, because Russia will never have its own Willy Brandt, who would kneel, atoning for and acknowledging crimes against Ukrainians. There will be no process of denazification in Russia like the German population went through after World War II," Yatsenyuk said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine, responding to a question about the prospects of Ukrainian-Russian relations.
For this reason, he added, Ukraine will survive only "if we withstand this war, and I am certain we will," and will become a member of the EU and NATO.
"Alone, we will fall into a history we have already experienced: the Russian people will never stop in their utterly wild desire to engulf Ukraine. They feel inferior to us. I think the problem runs much deeper. They know who they are. And they know who we are. And they cannot reconcile with that. And this history has already lasted hundreds and hundreds of years," emphasized the former prime minister.
At the same time, the head of the Kyiv Security Forum called China an ally of Russia in the war against Ukraine and its main beneficiary. "Can Ukraine have equal relations with Beijing? No. Just like with India. We have different scales, different economies, different sizes. In fact, Ukraine is even ‘feeding’ China: we buy from them for $16 billion, but sell for only $2 billion. $14 billion not in our favor. From this money, the Chinese then send part of it to the Russians. With India, it’s even worse: trade turnover with Ukraine is only $1 billion," Yatsenyuk said, adding that "to have relations with China and India, you need to be a member of a large union like the European Union."
He also positively assessed the signing of the mineral resources agreement with the U.S., noting that "the implementation of this agreement will not be in a year, not in two, not in five, but in ten years." "This is a real prospect. And money needs to be invested in it. This is somewhat worrying, because in ten years it’s hard to imagine that Trump will be in the office of the President of the United States. But if it is done now, then in ten years Ukraine will definitely not have the problems it faces today, being 90% dependent on the Chinese… And I evaluate this agreement in the same way," Yatsenyuk said.