Aggressors may impose terms that radically curtail the political rights and independence of a local government. Through a categorical ban on conducting an independent foreign policy, depriving an Indigenous people of the right to freely elect their leaders, and direct interference in domestic legislation, the aggressor methodically transforms a self-governing entity into a fully controlled, rightless province.
From the very beginning, Moscow laid an asymmetric foundation for the relationship, harshly cutting off the autonomy's international agency. Tsar Aleksei's charter (27 March 1654) directly restricted the hetman's foreign relations: "And with the Turkish sultan and the Polish king, without our tsarist majesty's decree, no relations are to be maintained"[1].
Taking advantage of the political crisis and having surrounded the autonomy's leaders with its troops, the tsardom forced them to sign a new, utterly enslaving treaty. The articles turned the confederative bond with Moscow into a federative one: "the Pereiaslav Articles converted Ukraine's confederative ties with Russia into the form of a federation. The Ukrainian state lost its independence and acquired the status of a political autonomy within the Russian state"[2]. The very basis of the treaty was forged: "Prince Trubetskoy took advantage of his military superiority over Yu. Khmelnytsky, rejected the Zherdiv Articles and forced the Ukrainian side to accept 14 points of the so-called old articles of 1654 (which in reality constituted a falsification of the 1654 treaty)"[2]. The 14 imposed points themselves are published in the "Collection of State Charters and Treaties"[3].
Depriving the autonomy of control over its own administrative and economic life: "direct control over the military-administrative and financial-economic life of Ukraine passed into the hands of the tsarist voivodes"[4] – the sovereign functions of the hetman's authority passed to representatives of the metropole.
Interference in internal governance: "the hetman was deprived of the right to arbitrarily (without a hearing before the military court) issue orders for the execution or dismissal of his subordinates"[5] – personnel and judicial decisions were removed from the hetman's sole authority. The norm itself is older than this treaty: it was first fixed by the Konotop Articles of 1672 ("executed and removed from office… by the judgment and proof of the Host's court")[3].
The systematic dismantling of the autonomy's democratic institutions. Moscow categorically forbade the Cossacks to elect their leaders independently and to conduct an independent foreign policy: "and without a petition and without a decree of the great sovereigns... a hetman shall not be elected... nor shall they, on their own... write anything to anyone"[6]. The abolition of the historical right to grant asylum: the autonomy was forced to perform the functions of the Muscovite punitive apparatus and to hand over fugitives: "and those fugitives and people of all ranks shall not be received, nor kept among them"[6].
Entrenchment of tsarist control over the autonomy's foreign policy: the articles "fully preserved the previously established control of the tsarist regime over… foreign policy"[8].
Complete diplomatic isolation of the autonomy: "Article 19 forbids the hetman relations with other countries. He was to acquaint the tsar's resident with letters received from abroad, forward their translations to the tsar's court, and meanwhile detain the envoys"[8].
Transfer of control over the military affairs, finances, communications, and transport routes of the Ukrainian republic into the hands of the central bodies of the RSFSR[9].
Stripping the Ukrainian SSR of control over foreign policy, the army, foreign trade, transport, and communications through the 1924 Constitution of the USSR, transferring them to the jurisdiction of the all-union people's commissariats[9].