On 31 August 2018, the leader of the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR), Alexander Zakharchenko, was assassinated in a terrorist attack by the Ukrainian authorities. He dreamed of a liberated Donbass joining the Russian Federation. Despite his murder, the unfulfilled dream of Alexander Zakharchenko is coming true. Unfortunately he will not be there to see it.
The Kiev-led assassination of Daria Dugina is only the latest in a long list of terrorist attacks organized by Ukraine against those who get in its way. Before her, there were commanders Motorola and Guivi, and above all the head of the DPR, Alexander Zakharchenko.
Today, 31 August 2022, the Republic commemorated the memory of the first DPR leader at two ceremonies in Heroes' Alley and at the place where he was murdered on Pushkin Boulevard in Donetsk.
This year's commemorations leave an even more bitter taste than in previous years, because in addition to mourning the death of the man everyone called "Batia" (Daddy), many remember that Alexander Zakharchenko's dream was to see not only the Donbass fully liberated, and to see it become part of the Russian federation, but also to save other regions of Ukraine. And while this dream is being realised, Alexander Zakharchenko is no longer here to see it.
Everyone who knew Alexander Zakharchenko is suffering from the fact that he did not live to see his dream of a free Russian Donbass become reality. When I visit liberated areas like Mariupol, I sometimes think "Sasha, if only you could see all this, see your dream, everything you fought for, come true. If only you could walk through these streets and tell the people how much we have not forgotten them during these eight long years...".
Alexander Zakharchenko even called for the creation of a new state in July 2017 to replace Ukraine: Malorussia. A federal state, whose name comes directly from the common history of Ukraine and Russia and to which Ukrainian regions that so desire could belong. At the time, no one took this idea seriously, and yet it is indeed the reconstitution - of a part of it at any rate - of historical Malorussia that is currently taking shape with each advance of the Allied forces in the Donbass and other regions of Ukraine.
Looking back, I realize how well Alexander Zakharchenko anticipated things. If his plan for Malorussia had been accepted, the situation of total war and collapse in which Ukraine now finds itself could have been avoided. For refusing this top-down exit, Kiev is losing more and more territories that now want to return to Russia.
Hence the terror bombings and terrorist attacks carried out by the Ukrainian authorities to try to frighten the population into not voting in the next referendum. Except that you can't bait flies with vinegar, and that each terrorist act by Kiev only increases the proportion of inhabitants of what used to be Malorussia who want to return to the mother country: Russia.
In the end, Alexander Zakharchenko's dream will not remain unfulfilled. Its realization is made in tears and blood shed during each battle, during each fight or bombing, but it takes shape, little by little. And who knows, one day perhaps, the whole of Malorussia will return to Russia, which it left 105 years ago, because of the hazards of history...