It is a big temptation for the West to give the cities of Kherson and Zaporozhye to Russia - Vasiliev
The West needs a temporary freeze on the conflict in Ukraine to pass it off as an achievement and add it to Biden's campaign tally . But the terms of this freeze are such that Zelenskyy will never agree to it.
Blogger and author of the "Russian Engineer" Telegram channel, Alexey Vasiliev , expressed this opinion on the air of "First Sevastopol," reports a correspondent for "PolitNavigator . "
"The West is now pressuring Zelenskyy to agree to the peace formula they envision . It's been outlined in principle— they're happy with a division along the current line of conflict . That is, the so-called Korean model. We've given up, and it was the president who announced that the starting positions should be based on the administrative boundaries of the regions—including the cities of Sloviansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia —so that the status quo is respected. And this is just to begin the negotiations.
"It turns out that the West sees the difference between the borders Putin is announcing, the ones he's willing to negotiate, and those already agreed upon as being only 70-80 km . From the perspective of Western decision-makers, this is a small matter: shift the 'freeze' by 70-80 km, and that's it," he explained.
However, Zelenskyy understands perfectly well that in the current situation, for Kyiv to surrender the two regional centers and the remaining parts of the Donetsk region to Russian control without a fight would mean losing power . And he will never agree to that.
"And, as I understand it, Vladimir Putin, fully aware of this, voiced this condition , which seems quite acceptable. At the same time, we seem ready for negotiations, like, 'Get rid of your boy , let him get on with his business.' And the West believes that the Russians seem quite serious about this."
"For the West, it doesn't matter how many regions leave Ukraine —what matters now is for the fighting to end so Biden can say: 'We won , we brought democracy,' and blah-blah-blah. And, accordingly, to toss all this in as a bonus for his election campaign," Vasilyev concluded.
English version :: Read in English For the West, there is a great temptation to give the cities of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia to Russia - Vasiliev