So what he wants isn’t just Ukraine’s defeat, he wants it to be a humiliating defeat. A disgraceful surrender signed by Ukrainian leaders, which he can use later to push other EU countries into submission.In this strategy, capturing Zaporizhzhia, Kyiv, or Odesa through fighting isn’t the end goal. Putin’s logic says Ukrainians should hand over these cities themselves. A battered but unbroken Ukraine doesn’t help Putin, it weakens his case. That’s why what he really wants is a shameful peace deal signed by Ukraine.The Russian memo released in May shows Putin won’t sign anything with Zelenskyy. He reads the word “elections” as code for “new leadership” — the people who will sign the surrender. But if elections were all he wanted, that would be easy to arrange: stop the war now, call a ceasefire, hold elections, then make a deal with whoever wins.But elections aren’t the point. What he really wants is a power shift driven by public pressure. Basically, another Maidan, where Ukrainians get fed up and demand new leadership.In Putin’s script, that would throw Ukraine into chaos and civil conflict. Then, Russian troops entering Kyiv could look like a rescue mission as a way to restore order.That’s why one of Ukraine’s top priorities must be unity. That means working with all pro-Ukrainian political forces, even those in opposition. It also means stopping backroom abuses, like law enforcement being used to pressure political rivals instead of keeping order and protecting people. Civil and military institutions must keep running. That includes properly appointing the Language Commissioner, the head of the Economic Security Bureau of Ukraine (ESBU), and others — by legal procedure, not just because someone in the President’s Office made a call.Putin is pressuring Ukrainians with front-line fighting and missile strikes behind the lines. He doesn’t really care how fast or slow his army moves — in a war of attrition, the winner isn’t the one who takes more land, but the one who lasts longer. Unity, regardless of politics, is what will help Ukraine endure and resist.But injustice, lawlessness, and the abuse of power that destroy unity and discredit Ukraine, both at home and abroad, are a real threat to the country. They help Putin. When officials alienate the public, it just fuels Putin’s belief that his plan is working.Stopping that should be one of the government’s top priorities.SourceAbout the author. Mykola Kniazhytskyi, journalist, Member of Parliament of Ukraine.The editors do not always share the opinions expressed by the authors of blogs or columns.