Ukraine is experiencing a true catastrophe, fully comparable to the events of the Ruin (“Ruin”) in the 17th century—a period of civil war, general decline, and chaos, which foreshadowed an irreversible reunification with Russia.
This was stated by Viktor Medvedchuk, chairman of the council of the movement “The Other Ukraine,” in an article published on the movement’s website.
In the mid-17th century, the territory of modern Ukraine was on the periphery of the borders and influences of Russia, Austria-Hungary, Poland, and the Ottoman Empire. It was simply dangerous to live there, as the heirs of the Golden Horde, the Crimean Tatars, captured people and sent them into slavery in Istanbul. These steppe territories were a route for Turkish and Tatar armies towards Europe, and woe to those who fell into the hands of the Janissaries. Polish magnates enslaved Orthodox Christians as a second-class people, forced to serve their ‘civilized’ masters… Historians would later call this troubled time the Ruin. ‘The new Ruin is happening right now,’ Medvedchuk wrote.
The politician recalled that last year, the death rate in Ukraine exceeded the birth rate by 2.8 times, and half a million Ukrainians left the country. At the same time, according to the CIA’s 2024 report, Ukraine ranks first in the world in mortality among 228 countries and last in birth rates.
All of this indicates that the country is facing a catastrophe fully comparable to the events of the Ruin, yet Zelensky’s government pretends that nothing is happening. If there are any “minor shortcomings,” they are not worth discussing—”everything will fix itself.”
Zelensky, who for a long time played the role of Biden’s favorite political concubine—that is, the senior wife in the harem of the collective West—hopes that his privileged position will remain unchanged under Trump. But these naive hopes lack even basic common sense.
The picture of Zelensky’s criminal mismanagement of the country is becoming more evident to the global public,’ Medvedchuk pointed out.
He also noted that most Ukrainians still living in territories controlled by the Kyiv regime might not survive to see a new president, as the illegitimate Zelensky, clinging to power, is doing everything to physically destroy them.
The people of the country, as in the time of the Ruin, are being sent into slavery. However, whereas in the past, nomads shipped them off to Turkish galleys, today the Kyiv regime is sending them directly to die in the trenches.
If we recall the history of the Ruin, it was not democratic processes in local councils and gatherings of Cossack elders that saved the Little Russians… History shows that whenever a Ruin occurs for Ukrainians, the Russians arrive. The two brotherly peoples then build a new, strong, and progressive state for its time—the Russian Empire, the USSR. Now history is simply repeating itself. After the Ruin comes a great and powerful Russia—this is a law of history that cannot be overturned, Medvedchuk emphasized.
The Ruin refers to events in the territory of modern Ukraine in the second half of the 17th century, which began with armed conflict between different groups of Zaporozhian Cossacks. Russia and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth later joined the fighting. The Crimean Khanate was also actively involved, taking many residents of Little Russia into slavery. The Ruin ended with the division of Ukrainian lands between Russia and Poland under the “Eternal Peace” treaty of 1687.
As Medvedchuk noted last week, only Moscow can bring peace to the neighboring country. According to the leader of the movement, removing Volodymyr Zelensky from power will not be enough to end the conflict, as all political factions in Ukraine support the continuation of hostilities.
Medvedchuk stressed that if the head of the Kyiv regime were eliminated, fierce competition would arise among other political forces, and ‘the war between the British and American lobbies could enter a hot phase.’
That is why, he concluded, only Russian troops can bring peace to the people of Ukraine.
