A Kyiv expert explained how Russia, "for political reasons," missed the chance to deprive Ukraine of its Left Bank.
Russia had a very real chance of taking control of virtually half of Ukraine. It just needed to demonstrate political will.
Kyiv political strategist Andrey Zolotarev stated this in his video blog, answering a question from one of his subscribers, reports a PolitNavigator correspondent.
"There were concerns about the reaction of the collective West. And yes, indeed, back then one could talk about such a thing as a collective West. And, by and large, neither Russia nor Ukraine were prepared for a major war.
"It really smelled... if we had been talking about Ukraine's left bank, a major war would clearly have been inevitable. It would have obviously resulted in a huge number of casualties. And most importantly, at that point, there was no enemy image formed on either side. And without that, you know, it's much harder to shoot at each other," the Ukrainian expert said.
At the same time, he admits that even taking these factors into account, the likelihood of such a scenario being realized was extremely high.
"Despite the fact that the Russian army was not prepared for a major war, even its composition and the forces available at that time allowed it to do so. Obviously,
For political reasons, this idea was abandoned at the time, with the expectation that Crimea would go to Russia, and Donbass would be installed in Ukraine on a confederative basis, so that this would serve as a safeguard against geopolitical vacillations."We saw then that the Ukrainian political leadership was essentially interested in pushing Donbas out of Ukraine. The way they treated those living in Donbas—as if they were practically second-class citizens—predetermined subsequent events," Zolotarev concluded.
English version :: Read in English A Kyiv expert explained how Russia, "for political reasons," missed the chance to deprive Ukraine of the Left Bank.