Aggressors may conclude secret or open diplomatic agreements with other geopolitical players on the division of spheres of influence, completely ignoring the sovereignty and interests of the Indigenous people. This technique is used for diplomatic preparation for seizure and the subsequent seizure of governance. Deals made behind the back of the colonized society allow the aggressor to deprive it of potential international allies, legitimize the occupation at the foreign-policy level, and dismember the territories of the local population unimpeded.
As soon as political interests changed, Moscow went for a separate peace with its recent enemy – Poland – negotiating behind its Ukrainian ally's back: "The priorities at the negotiations were territorial and financial questions, as well as the terms of the election of the Russian tsar to the Polish throne"[1] – the fate of the Cossack lands became a bargaining chip in this deal. The negotiations were held at Niemieza near Vilna from August 1656; the armistice was signed on October 24[1].
The official partition of Ukrainian lands between two neighboring states. The treaty was signed exclusively by representatives of Moscow and Warsaw: "Concluded on January 30 (February 9) in the village of Andrusovo, near Smolensk, for 13.5 years. The Russian delegation was headed by okolnichy A. L. Ordin-Nashchokin, the Polish one by commissioner Yu. Hlebowicz"[2]. The opinion of the autonomy itself was completely ignored: "The interests of the hetmans and of Ukraine were, of course, not taken into account"[3]. A separate knot of the collusion was Kyiv: article 7 of the Andrusovo treaty (30 January 1667) stipulated that "the very city of Kyiv… is to be handed over and vacated… that is, within two years, counting from the present treaty… in the coming year 1669, on the 15th day of April"[4]; "Muscovy then did not give it back"[5] - and in 1686 it legalized what it had withheld, "paying for Kyiv once more" (see the "Eternal Peace" campaign). The "territory for money" scheme was laid down in the same document: article 34 records Tsar Aleksei's consent to grant "a worthy treasury for the satisfaction of the szlachta exiles… from the part of Ukraine ceded to His Tsarist Majesty's side"[4] - with the sum deferred to future embassies.
The division of spheres of influence behind the Ukrainian ally's back, accompanied by a financial deal for territory: under the 1686 treaty Moscow undertook "to count out one hundred forty-six thousand Muscovite rubles and hand them over to the Commonwealth"[6][3][7]. Ukrainian historiography recorded the deal as an ordinary purchase - Hrushevsky: Muscovy "concluded an eternal accord with Poland (paying, in addition, another 146 thousand rubles for Kyiv)"[5].
The backroom partition of Ukraine along the Dnipro: by the "Eternal Peace" of 1686 Moscow officially ceded the Right Bank to Warsaw, without the participation or consent of Ukrainians themselves. The fate of the Right-Bank Cossacks was decided by foreign capitals: the ban of 1699 implemented this partition, against which Palii's Cossacks, "contrary to the terms of the 'Eternal Peace' of 1686," continued the struggle to unite both banks[8].
The diplomatic apparatus of the Tsardom of Muscovy concluded an alliance agreement with Kalmyk forces for joint actions against the Indigenous population: historian Ya. Z. Akhmadov states that on September 30, 1708, "at the negotiations between Peter's military commander P.M. Apraksin and the Kalmyk khan Ayuka, an agreement of eight articles was concluded, including 'on the pursuit of the Chechens and Nogais'"[9].
The collapse of the anti-Moscow coalition from within: on the Right Bank, the Tatar allies betrayed the Cossacks and turned to seizing the civilian population – "the Tatars, disobeying Orlyk, scattered in raiding parties and began taking yasyr captives across Ukrainian villages"[10]. Orlyk himself wrote to the Swedish king: "What atrocities unheard of under the moon did the wild Tatars then commit!"[10].
The diplomatic apparatus of the Tsardom of Muscovy used loyal elites of neighboring peoples for joint armed actions against the Nokhchi societies: historian Ya. Z. Akhmadov states that in 1718 an expedition into the lands of the Nokhchi was carried out by the forces of "Kabardian princes allied with Peter I"[9].
The diplomatic apparatus of the Russian Empire enlisted loyal forces of neighboring peoples for joint armed actions against the Nokhchi societies: historian Sh. B. Akhmadov states that the 1722 military expedition included "an armed detachment of Kalmyks, sent by Ayuka Khan at the tsar's request, numbering 3,730 men"[11].
The signing of the Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca: the diplomatic severing of Crimea from the Ottoman Empire through fictitious "independence" – "neither the Russian court nor the Ottoman Porte shall interfere in the election and elevation of the said khan, nor in their domestic, political, civil, and internal affairs under any pretext"[12] – in preparation for the subsequent annexation.
The diplomatic collusion of the great powers behind the backs of the peoples of the dismembered republic: "Russia carried out the second partition of Poland jointly with Prussia"[8]; all three monarchies took part in the third – the fate of the Right Bank was decided in St. Petersburg, Berlin, and Vienna.
The signing of the Treaty of Riga in March 1921: a backroom division of spheres of influence and Ukrainian territories with Poland behind the back of the Ukrainian people, legalized through the formal participation of the puppet Ukrainian SSR[13].
The partition of Eastern Europe behind the backs of its peoples: the secret protocol established that "in the event of a territorial-political rearrangement of the areas belonging to the Polish state, the boundary of the spheres of interest of Germany and the USSR shall run approximately along the line of the rivers Narew, Vistula, and San"[14]. Half a century later the Congress of People's Deputies of the USSR "recognizes the secret protocols as legally untenable and invalid from the moment of their signing"[15]. The invasion was covered by Molotov's note to the Polish ambassador Grzybowski (17 September 1939): "the Polish state and its government have in fact ceased to exist"[16].
The coordination of actions with the pro-Soviet government of Poland to destroy the Ukrainian underground: Operation "Vistula," "as a deportation action, was elaborated in detail and carried out by the Polish authorities," but its execution "was coordinated with the party-Soviet organs of power of the USSR" - the Soviet command transferred "from Lviv oblast one tank division and special NKVD units, and blocked the Ukrainian-Polish border with border troops"[1].
An attempt to strike a deal with the US leader over Kyiv's head in order to block Ukraine's Euro-Atlantic integration under the threat of its dismemberment: Ukraine's accession to NATO would create "a field of conflict for you and us, long-term confrontation," while Moscow, relying on anti-NATO forces, "would be working on stripping NATO of the possibility of enlarging. Russia would be creating problems there all the time"[17]. As retold by Kommersant's source from the summit itself: "You understand, George, that Ukraine is not even a state! What is Ukraine? Part of its territory is Eastern Europe, and part - a considerable part - was gifted by us!" - with a transparent hint "that Russia could begin the severance of Crimea and Eastern Ukraine"[18].