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Whereas the Ukrainian government fears the erosion of the West’s anti-Russian consensus and the weakening of pressure on Moscow, the Russian government has reasons to believe that, should Moscow make any significant concessions with regard to the peacekeepers in Donbass, Kiev and the West (the United States at least) would perceive this as a sign of weakness on the part of Russia and might try to apply greater pressure on Moscow.
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If Russia decides to give up Donbass, then Crimea might become the West’s ...
... Peacekeeping Forces
Kiev also fears that Moscow could try to go further than simply including a Russian contingent in the peacekeeping mission by turning that contingent into the core of the peacekeeping forces, thus legalizing Russia's military presence in Donbass. As far as Kiev is concerned, the existing precedents of Russian peacekeepers having been deployed in Georgia and Moldova clearly demonstrate the political risks and long term negative repercussions of such a decision for “host” counties. At the same time, Ukrainian experts refer to the established UN practice ...
... political situation inside Ukraine, to include conditions relating to non-Nato membership for Ukraine or even significant constitutional concessions from Kiev within a broader (global) deal, Russia would certainly expect, in exchange for agreeing to peacekeepers, considerable sanctions relief relating to its activities in, and support for, the separatist campaign in the Donbass. capitals on three continents over the last three and a half years, starting in the days and weeks immediately following the Ukrainian revolution, the Crimean annexation and the start of the Donbass war in 2014, to find and drive winning algorithms ...
