Russia must be punished and pay war reparations — Zelensky’s adviser

KYIV — Ukraine wants Russia to pay reparations for the war it is waging against its neighbour.

“Russia should be punished,” an adviser to Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky’, Mykhailo Podolyak, said this week.

Podolyak was updating South African journalists about the status of the two-year-old war which has seen the deaths of thousands of Ukrainians and the country depleted of its resources. 

“Russia must face reparations and financial consequences. When generations are forced to pay for the sins of their fathers perhaps then they will see the authoritarian regime for the evil that it is,” he said, speaking through an interpreter.

“They will see maybe building an authoritarian regime was not a good idea.”

Podolyak believes the just end to the war would be Russia suffering consequences for what it has done in Ukraine and paying reparations. “Practically for Russia to lose everything,” he said.

According to Podolyak, the sanctions imposed against Russian are not quite working and need to be reviewed.

“So, basically what I would like to change in the sanctions (is to) limit Russia's access to any markets and to food and to impose heavy fines on the companies that still operate in the Russian market because those companies they are paying taxes to the budget which finances this war.”

Ukraine wants companies that help Russia bypass the sanctions to be fined.

“We need to carry out an audit of their financial transactions, an audit of their trade operations to find those companies and countries which help Russia to bypass the sanctions. We need to target them individually and to put heavy fines on them.”

It also wants Russia’s membership of international organisations to be suspended, saying Russia has for a long time neglected international law and does not obey it .

Kyiv believes the reason Russia still has resources to continue the war two years on is not only the ammunition support it gets from Iran or North Korea but that the sanctions may need to be tightened.

There are still some global, very important large companies present and doing business in Russia and this needs to be reviewed along with the Russian presence in the UN Security Council where it can veto some decisions.

Podolyak says Ukraine is not prepared to negotiate with Russia adding the only way to end the war is for Ukraine to prevail.

Defeating Russia in this war is important because it would mean a defeat for the federation’s obsession with aggression and expansionism.

Podolyak believes Russia, which “launches aggression against other states and lives by expanding over others’ borders”, should face defeat and financial consequences by being made to pay reparations so that people in Russia understand this is how justice will prevail. 

“Russia is built on this idea of aggression. It cannot invest in its own country but lives by expanding and launching aggression on other countries and for this Russia must suffer a defeat.”

When the myth that Russia has perpetuated among its citizens that it is a super military power is exposed and the population realises the war only benefits the political elite, it may result in a rebellion or unrest which could bring down the regime.

Podolyak says the myth of Russian power was exposed when the mutinous Wagner Group barrelled towards Moscow after increasing tensions between the Russian ministry of defence and its then leader Yevgeny Prigozhin.

Podolyak wishes people could understand why Ukraine is not ready for negotiations with Russia.

“It's very important to understand the nature of this war: Russia hasn't come here to chop off a small territory. I want just very clearly to put out the message that Russia views Ukraine or any former Soviet territory, as part of its power or territory.

“So they think in this territory they have the right to dominate or to establish their governance, their rules and dictate the internal and external policy.

“If you don’t agree with this, they come to kill you en masse,” he said.

“They kill people regardless of whether they are military or civilian. They just kill people who are not loyal to their power and authority.”

“So for us, this war is literally a war for freedom so that we can live freely in our land, have our sovereignty and live like we want,” he said.

Even an operational pause in fighting to allow space for negotiations wouldn’t work as he believes Russia would use that time to accumulate more resources to launch more attacks and fulfil its ultimate goal of destroying Ukraine, he said.

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