{"id":255667,"date":"2022-07-04T07:41:19","date_gmt":"2022-07-04T07:41:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=255667"},"modified":"2022-07-05T07:13:48","modified_gmt":"2022-07-05T07:13:48","slug":"political-rift-is-zelensky-surrendering-positions-to-his-own-executioners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=255667","title":{"rendered":"Political Rift: Is Zelensky Surrendering Positions to His Own Executioners?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dragana Trifkovic \u2013 <\/strong>21st Century Wire<\/strong><\/a> July 1, 2022<\/h1>\n
\"\"

Zelensky awards Right Sector commander Dmytro Kotsyubaylo the \u201cHero of Ukraine\u201d award. Click to enlarge<\/p><\/div>\n

For the past few months, the world has been following the bloody events in Ukraine. The European media has been covering the war in great detail, but has been silent on the many political processes taking place on the territory of this possible new EU member state. The reality is that Ukraine is currently undergoing a deep political crisis, seriously exacerbated by Russia\u2019s invasion. More specifically, we are talking about a confrontation between two important figures on the political scene \u2013 President Volodymyr Zelensky and former Interior Minister Arsen Avakov.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Arsen Avakov is one of the country\u2019s most influential politicians. For seven years, from 2014 to 2021, he served as the country\u2019s interior minister \u2013 an absolute record for the modern Ukraine. No one else has held a leadership position in the government for that long. Avakov also formally and informally controls nationalist movements in the country. Under his authority is the notorious Azov battalion<\/strong>, which is a unit of the Ukrainian National Guard and reports directly to the Interior Ministry. In addition, Avakov is on the political council (governing body) of the People\u2019s Front party, also known for its radical views. Before joining the government, Avakov was in charge of Ukraine\u2019s Kharkiv region. There he developed a network of special formations \u2013 from scattered nationalist circles and associations of football fans, he managed to form full-fledged organised paramilitary movements (1). Avakov used this resource during the 2014 Maidan events to overthrow the regime at that time, after which he took over the top position in the Interior Ministry.<\/p>\n

By increasing his political weight, the former minister has promoted his appointees to key positions in various ministries and has acquired power based on brute force, becoming a direct threat to members of the rest of the system.<\/p>\n

The struggle between Zelensky and Avakov is the president\u2019s fight against the out-of-control security forces. In 2021, Zelensky attempted to regain power over them and sent Avakov to resign. But the problem has not been eliminated, as Avakov\u2019s loyalists continue to remain in power, and the paramilitary forces informally controlled by the former minister are one of the country\u2019s main strike and defence forces.<\/p>\n

With the outbreak of the war, Avakov\u2019s resources have significantly increased. His units are fighting against Russian forces and their actions play a key role in the fighting. Without Azov and similar regiments, Zelensky will stand little chance of countering Russia\u2019s military intervention in Ukraine. The president is well aware that the more the conflict with Russia drags on, the more his resources are depleted, and Avakov\u2019s power grows.<\/p>\n

Zelensky\u2019s goal in this conflict is to reduce the role of the former minister\u2019s formations in the Ukrainian army. Telegram channels reported that an official paper signed by SBU chief Bokanov, which said that representatives of special units of the Ukrainian army \u2013 members of the Azov battalion should be eliminated \u2013 has been circulating online.<\/p>\n

According to these reports, special services have been ordered to conduct \u201cOperation Black Phoenix\u201d, which is aimed at carrying out sabotage on the territory of Russia and the self-proclaimed Donetsk People\u2019s Republic in order to eliminate the Azov representatives who surrendered (2). Additionally, there are reports that the Ukrainian army is using \u201cGrad\u201d multiple rocket launchers to attack the remand centre in the village of Olenivka, where captives of this battalion are being held (3). The deeper the Russian army moves into Ukraine, the more casualties regular Ukrainian defence personnel suffer, the more valuable Avakov\u2019s armed formations become. Whether Avakov and his hand-held formations ends up becoming a threat to Zelensky\u2019s regime will be clearer in the next couple of months.<\/p>\n

References:<\/p>\n

(1)\u00a0https:\/\/www.politnavigator.net\/politolog-rasskazal-kak-avakov-podchinil-sebe-kharkovskikh-nacistov.html<\/a>
\n(2) https:\/\/t.me\/soroka_belaya\/871<\/a>
\n(3)\u00a0https:\/\/t.me\/readovkanews\/34118<\/a><\/p>\n

Author Dragana Trifkovic<\/strong> is a Serbian journalist, politician, political analyst, and general director of the Center for Geostrategic Studies. She was born in Belgrade, Serbia where she finished primary, secondary school and higher education. At the basic studies of the University of Belgrade, she acquired the title of graduate engineer, and then she completed a master\u2019s degree in natural and technical sciences, as well as a multidisciplinary master\u2019s degree at the University of Belgrade \u2013 Terrorism, Organized Crime and Security. She defended her master\u2019s thesis on the topic \u201cParticipation of fighters from the Balkans in the establishment and operation of the terrorist organization Islamic State\u201d. She completed additional trainings in the Russian Federation: CSTO Academy and seminars at the Center for Anti-Terrorism of the Commonwealth of Independent States. She continued her doctoral studies at the Technical Faculty of BU and the Faculty of Philosophy in Moscow<\/em><\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As Russian forces secure Ukraine’s eastern Luhansk region a rift has opened between President Zelensky and his former Interior Minister Arsen Avakov, who controls Ukrainian nationalists like the Azov battalion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[91,116],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-255667","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-russia","category-ukraine"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255667","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=255667"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255667\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":255671,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255667\/revisions\/255671"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=255667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=255667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=255667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}