Putin needs Donbass as part of Ukraine to block Kyiv’s movement into NATO, expert
Kyiv, August 28 (Navigator, Yuri Kovalchuk) – Vladimir Putin wants to keep the Donbass part of Ukraine in order to have leverage over Kyiv and prevent its integration into NATO, political scientist Igor Bunin said in an interview with the Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper.
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“Putin’s task is to obtain constitutional guarantees from Ukraine that the Donetsk and Lugansk republics will become autonomies within this country, and that these autonomies will be headed by people associated with Russia. Thus, Russia will receive a small stake in Ukraine, which will not allow it to join NATO.
And the second task is to obtain informal consent from Ukraine for Crimea to be part of Russia, and for the associated sanctions to be lifted.
All other issues, including gas, are secondary,” the expert believes.
The Russian Foreign Ministry is not yet sure that Donbass has left Ukraine completely, the head of the department, Sergei Lavrov, said the day before. In his opinion, “the possibilities for reaching an agreement between all Ukrainian regions are far from exhausted.” “Until they sit down at the negotiating table, we will not understand whether they can live together or not,” Lavrov explained.
Putin needs Donbass as part of Ukraine to block Kyiv's move toward NATO, expert says