Russia-Ukraine war: What it will take to end the invasion

A former political prisoner of the Soviet regime explains one group of individuals could stop Vladimir Putin’s ambitions. See how.

In a tale of two Russias, only a coup by the sanctioned-hit elite can stop Vladimir Putin’s expansionist ambitions and the Ukraine war, a former political prisoner turned leading commentator has said.

Myroslav Marynovych, vice rector of the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv, said the Russian president has never been more dangerous but his people were incapable of overthrowing him.

That was because on latest estimates some 70 per cent of Russians support the president and his narrative the invasion of Ukraine was just a military operation aimed at weeding out Nazis from a neighbour country in need of help.

Russia is a tale of two people, the mostly young or successful, educated and internet and tech-savvy and those with wealth versus the masses who believe in patriotism and the gospel word of the Kremlin against perceived enemies in the West.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has never been more dangerous. Picture: Mikhail KLIMENTYEV / SPUTNIK / AFP

Most Russian diplomats including in Australia swear uncompromised allegiance to the latter, despite also enjoying the spoils of their position with the former.

So it’s the smaller Russian subset oligarch-led elites of Ukraine, including some within the Kremlin, that could move on Mr Putin given his actions have doomed their wealth, boats and lavish lifestyles and foreign holidays.

“I lived in the totalitarian state and I know this logic,” Mr Marynovych told News Corp on Friday from his campus which was now on a war footing and acting as a collection point for kit for Ukrainian armed forces.

“Yes people support him because they are afraid of being against the power, this is a long tradition of Russia. It’s ‘I am a little man and nothing depends on me, there are strong in this world who decide and my task is to obey’ – this is the logic of Russian people and this was the logic of all the nations in the Soviet Union, ‘we are not so strong to revolt or oppose’.

“So I do not expect a Russian maidan (revolt), people gathering in Red Square to protest this, I cannot imagine, it would not be effective.

Vice Rector of the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv, Myroslav Marynovych. Picture: Charles Miranda

“But what I believe a coup d’tat is more realistic when the Russian elite understand they have lost everything then probably they will come to Putin and say ‘this is the end and now we want our property, our fate and life back’.”

Across the world sanctions imposed by the West including Australia have frozen and or seized the assets and wealth of the elites closest to Mr Putin.

But he added in the meantime: “The tiger is still very dangerous, perhaps more dangerous because he feels the cold of his death.”

The 73-year-old Mr Marynovych, who was jailed by the Soviets for seven years then sent into exile for five for his outspoken leadership, went on to be a founder of both Amnesty International and the Helsinki group in Ukraine.

He said broadly people just consider Mr Putin guilty for the conflict but many Ukrainians hold ordinary Russians to account too, for their collective unquestioning blind support for their president and hold on a Soviet mentality no longer realistic for the modern age.

ANGER, PAIN AT FAREWELL FOR VICTIMS OF ‘EVIL’

The shrill of air raid sirens competed with military drum taps and trumpets in a slow shuffle along a cobbled street in Lviv in Ukraine’s west this week.

But not even the threat of an inward bound Russian cruise missile could disperse the hundreds who had turned out for the funeral of an army colonel and three majors.

In emotional scenes, family, friends and strangers defied the threat in a fitting procession for the fallen outside the Sts Peter and Paul Garrison Church.

Dozens of soldiers also took time out from the war to bid private farewells to their comrades – Oleh Yaschyshyn, Sergiy Melnyk, Rostyslav Romanchuk and Kyrylo Vyshyvany – killed in a missile strike on their officer training academy in Yavoriv on the outskirts of Lviv earlier this week.

Ukrainian servicemen carry a coffin during the funeral service for four of their comrades, who were killed by a Russian air strike. Picture: Getty Images

Daughter of Rostyslav Romanchuk stands near the portrait of her father his funeral. Picture: AFP

Colonel Anton Myronovich knew all four and spoke of their dedication to service and the heartbreaking impact of their deaths on their families.

He spoke about defeating the enemy, strength of Ukraine resolve, Putin as the devil in what is now almost a mantra for Ukrainians speaking on the conflict.

But finally, he paused, closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose, then looked straight out and summed it up in three words.

“I’m pissed off,” he said in a language everyone present could understand.

“I’m pissed off and angry. Russia is no longer a country, it’s an evil.”

Weeping family including the wives of the soldiers were supported by loved ones as they walked in front of the coffins, their journey soundtracked by a small military drums and trumpet troupe

Officially there were 35 killed and 134 injured in the assault but there are suspicions the figure is a lot higher.