The morning attempt by the Russian occupation forces to penetrate the fragile line of contact in Donbas is seen as a sort of a "greeting" – and a rather expected one, too – to Ukrainians from the neighboring "fraternal nation", which has been desperately trying to rise from its knees, on the occasion of several tragic anniversaries in the modern history of Ukraine. It's about massacres in the center of Kyiv during the Revolution of Dignity and the Debaltseve battle: KGB successors love symbolism, so another violent and deadly act, which President Zelensky delicately and diplomatically branded a "provocation", that would match the corresponding dates could well be foreseen. This is all happening against the background of cheerful reports by European and Ukrainian diplomats following the publication of hardly realistic documents on sites of security conferences with dubious effectiveness.

This morning, the intentions of the "Russian world" propagators to remind Ukrainians of the cost of resistance successfully coincided with a good opportunity to show a somewhat euphoric Ukrainian political elite that the "Ukrainian world", which Ukrainian politicians promised their Ukrainian voters when attempted to be achieved through diplomatic methods, is only possible on Russian conditions.

As soon as Kyiv officials of different levels (even ministers) started telling on live TV that the implementation of "peace plans" and "joint patrolling" following some kind of arrangements reached in Munich would take place in line with Ukrainian law and under Ukrainian government control, the "greeting" came from the east.

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Among other things, insatiable and blood-thirsty warmongers and death traders with today's offensive with the use of their cannon fodder explicitly showed their attitude to the idea of ​​the public dialogue platform "Donbas Peace", dictating the tone and sort of emphasizing the relevance of its presentation (tentatively scheduled for tomorrow, the day following the attack on Ukrainian troops).

Another thing remains unclear – has enough evidence already amassed for the Ukrainian president and his entourage to finally see something in Putin's eyes anything other than his unbearably bloody desire for peace?

However, these things all seem to be obvious. But, of course, European partners, eager to resume trade with the Russian Empire as soon as possible, will pretend to believe Moscow's assurances that "they are not there," and that "they don't control" the occupied areas of Donbas. This is also obvious. Another thing remains unclear – has enough evidence already amassed for the Ukrainian president and his entourage to finally see something in Putin's eyes anything other than his unbearably bloody desire for peace to stop pretending that anyone can agree on anything with Russia? Will the president's reserves of humor, mentioned by his spokesperson, last long enough to talk about difficult things while Ukrainians are dying on the front lines?

Both the public and, in fact, Ukrainian authorities urgently require intelligible answers to these questions. That's because if the public might dwell in illusions that complex issues – such as war or economic development – can be resolved by simple solutions, the government has no right to do so.

Bidding farewell to illusions is inevitable, but it may come too late for Ukraine, perhaps so late that the process of bidding this farewell will last longer than the state of Ukraine as such. Indeed, suggesting that there is still time for trying to play games with an experienced Kremlin cheater would also be an illusion.

Mykhailo Gannytskyi is an editor-in-chief at UNIAN