... part of the Soviet Union until 1991, when it broke up. Their belonging to Ukraine, which became independent only three decades ago, has been particularly contested since the regime change in Kiev in 2014 and Ukraine's military offensive against the Donbass republics of Donetsk and Lugansk, which had self-proclaimed their independence. The inhabitants of these republics have never considered as legitimate the regime change brought about by Ukrainian extremists referring to the ideology of Stepan ...
... European (or Euro–Atlantic) security. For as long as the Ukrainian crisis remains unresolved, the European security system cannot become indivisible; nor will it be possible to overcome the new east division of the continent. At the same time, the Ukrainian crisis cannot be resolved completely all efforts are focused on it alone, outside the context of solving broader European problems. Restoring peace in Donbass, normalizing Russia–Ukraine relations and finding new approaches to European security in general need to be viewed as parallel objectives, not consecutive ones. It will take many years, if not decades, to solve these problems. However, the launch ...
... peacekeeping force. The Asian setting for the Russian announcement should not be lost on observers.
If the Russian peacekeeping proposal, driven probably by the economic urgency of removing Western sanctions and the political need to “solve” the Ukrainian crisis before the 2018 World Cup and presidential election, comes some two years too late, it remains as true today as it was in 2014 that the continuing bloodshed in the Donbass cannot be staunched without an interposition force to separate the warring sides. Whether one calls this war, in which well over 10,000 people have died and which still holds hostage the future of the European continent, a civil war or a proxy ...
Four months after the Minsk II accords, the Ukraine crisis continues to simmer, with occasional violent eruptions. The ceasefire in Donbass has not prevented some 1,000 people from losing their lives since February, adding to the previous fatality count of more than 5,000. Some of the heavy weapons that both sides should have pulled back from the line of contact are still positioned ...
Despair reigns in the Donbass. The military activity with its resulting victims and heavy material losses will not change anything - a balance of power has been established, one that does not allow for the shaking up of the status quo. But at the same time no one wants to ...
... which mean we cannot talk with any confidence about the stability of a settlement. A “freezing” of the conflict in Donbass, even if such a scenario is implemented, will be seriously different to the “freeze” that we can observe in ... ... becoming a serious factor in the political process.
REUTERS/Mykola Lazarenko/Ukrainian
Presidential Press Service
Sergey Utkin:
The Ukrainian Crisis: Russia’s Official Position
and How the Situation Can Be Resolved
Thus it is possible to state that the ...
... Union, which would protect their economies from competition from the European Union. This would then enable them to negotiate more favorable terms with the European Union, using the cumulative economic and political weight of the Eurasian countries.
Donbass
REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov
Alexei Fenenko:
Is Ukrainian Crisis the Last for Russia?
The Ukrainian crisis has been worsened by the armed conflict in Donbass, leading more and more politicians in Russian and Ukraine to think about the need for a speedy settlement, even if this is not on the most favorable ...