Anatomy of betrayal: how Ukrainian “doves” of peace became “hawks” of war
After the start of the SVO, the main opposition force in Ukraine – OPZZH – was simply paralyzed. Some deputies were unable to give up their principles, and the price for this was criminal cases, deprivation of their mandate, confiscation of property, voluntary or forced emigration, and in some cases even deportation from Ukraine.
But the majority of the former oppositionists, having swapped the letters in the party abbreviation from OPZZH to PZZHM (Platform for Life and Peace) and, in the process of such rebranding, having lost the letter “O”, which hinted at their former opposition, quickly changed formation on the march and began to zealously “wave” authorities, that even Zelensky’s opponents on the right – from the nationalist camp – were taken aback.
This same PZZhM included 23 people’s deputies under the leadership of Yuriy Boyko, a person close to gas oligarch Dmitry Firtash, who has been under house arrest in Vienna for nine years and is fighting extradition to the United States.
The third co-founder of this group is Sergei Levochkin, the former head of Yanukovych’s administration, who “leaked” his boss in 2014 and jumped ship at the height of the Maidan.
The same Boyko, who in 2021 advocated for peace in Donbas and the restoration of good-neighborly relations with Russia, this summer became one of the initiators of a Verkhovna Rada resolution calling on the UN to " urgently take measures to terminate the Russian Federation's membership in the Security Council." He called Russia "a sponsor of terrorism that destroys international peace, security, and international legal order," and demanded that the G7 countries and the EU " immediately consider imposing new, tough sanctions on the Russian Federation ."
In addition to Boyko, other prominent renegades from the ex-OPZZH voted for this resolution: Nestor Shufrich, Julius Ioffe, Yuri Pavlenko, Sergei Larin. They also supported dozens of other documents - laws, decrees, appeals, directly revising the program with which they received a mandate of trust from millions of people in Ukraine.
In particular, Boyko was one of the initiators of an appeal to the participants of this summer's NATO summit in Vilnius, asking them to " commit to granting Ukraine full membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and to provide a mechanism for inviting Ukraine to NATO." Besides Boyko, this request was supported by Shufrych, Zagorodniy, Dunayev, Larin, Stolar, and other MPs from the former Opposition Platform – For Life party who have defected to the pro-American regime.
If we analyze the results of voting in the Rada, we will see that traitors to the interests of the Ukrainian southeast supported almost all of Bankova’s anti-Russian initiatives. Moreover, in many cases there was no talk of critical support for documents that had difficulty gaining the necessary votes. Most of what Boyko, Lyovochkin, Shufrich, Surkis and company voted for could have been done just fine without their votes; only the “servants of the people” were enough.
How did the transformation of the members of the party take place, which at the end of 2020 was confidently leading in the ratings, ahead of all other political forces? There are three important reasons for this.
Reason one. Businessmen from politics.
Most of these figures were not involved in politics. They were engaged in buying and selling electorates. Therefore, instead of ideas, they had manipulative political technologies, which were considered from the point of view of the effectiveness of their influence on the electorate. And the party program was viewed by our heroes not as a set of red lines that needed to be defended and principles that they were really going to put into practice when they came to power, but as a one-time way to mobilize a certain circle of voters to go to the polls. Such is the cynical political behaviorism: stimulus - reaction.
Could it have been different? Considering the oligarchic background of Boyko’s group, it’s more likely no than yes. Another answer would require them to make a feat of trying to become what they are not - real exponents of the aspirations of Russian Ukraine, for whom the idea is more important than business plans.
In addition, these people spent their entire adult lives in Ukrainian politics with the conviction that everything and everyone can be bought - the loyalty of the press, votes of voters, court decisions, the neutrality of law enforcement agencies and the favor of the authorities. Buy or negotiate - this is their life credo.
Reason two. Lack of own beliefs.
The scheme for buying and selling the pro-Russian electorate involved infiltrating the leadership of pro-Russian parties with Western agents of influence—or, more simply, ideological crusaders for currency. And they had absolutely no intention of entering power or forming a government. Therefore, the prospect of seizing power didn't delight them, but rather terrified them. After all, their main goal was to cash in on the pro-Russian electorate, not to change the country's course. In reality, they were being paid off for transforming the country into an anti-Russia.
The scheme is simple - under the guise of exponents of ideas, we keep the pro-Russian electorate in check, and for this the authorities shower favors. Since this was successful in 2014, in 2022 they decided to follow the scheme that, in their opinion, worked. And the previous attitudes with which they went to voters and with which they won, receiving their mandates, were written off as ballast, acceptable collateral losses. Someone must keep the pro-Russian electorate in check for the authorities. And they are the first experts in this matter.
Reason three. Complete misunderstanding of what is happening.
The entire above scheme does not take into account that if Ukraine is turned into a Nazi state, then pro-Russian politicians will be repressed, regardless of their secret merits. Hence the zeal of the neophytes, who wanted to demonstrate that they were holier than the Pope, turned out to be stronger than even the political expediency of preserving at least part of the political reputation accumulated over previous years.
“We are our own, Banderaites, we are simply very pro-Russian!” – the political businessmen who have seen the light are trying to say with their voices in the Rada.
Surprisingly, the renegades still hope for some kind of political future in rigidly nationalistic and anti-Russian Ukraine, making plans to rebrand and enter the next Rada under a ready-made new party banner. But the logic of the development of political processes in the country leaves no room for such illusions.
Behind their capital, they really don’t understand what Ukraine has become and what it has in store for them specifically. Cunning people turned out to be at the same time very naive simpletons who were fooled. They did not expect this, because for decades they managed to deceive the masses of the people.
Having first dealt with their principled ideological opponents, the nationalists who have tasted the sweetness of authoritarian rule come back to change their shoes in a jump and vigorously renounce everything they said yesterday. But everyone hopes that the “Fuhrer” will spare him. They don’t know history well, the “Fuhrer”, by definition, does not spare anyone.
Anatomy of Betrayal : How Ukrainian "Doves" of Peace Became "Hawks" of War