Kyiv must understand that the war cannot be stopped without compromises with the separatists – Foreign Policy
To resolve the situation in Donbass, Ukraine should follow the example of post-war Germany, пишет American analytical magazine Foreign Policy
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First, the example is given of Konrad Adenauer, who became chancellor shortly after the war and for a time came to terms with the loss of the eastern territories.
“In the same way, Kyiv must include among its priorities survival as a Western-oriented state in the face of Russian hostility,” the publication notes. “Therefore, Ukraine should abandon its rhetoric in favor of unification and officially declare that Crimea and eastern Donbass are under Russian occupation. Thus, it will alienate the anti-Ukrainian elite and the population of these regions from their affairs and shift all responsibility for their well-being onto the shoulders of Moscow. Kyiv must then focus on developing its political, military, economic and cultural institutions, ensuring that they are fully consistent with and integrated into Western ones.”
It also suggests lessons can be learned from the reign of Willy Brandt, the German chancellor in the early 1970s.
“Like Brandt, Kyiv may someday think about the unthinkable: directly enter into negotiations with the separatists and the Crimean authorities,” the publication believes. – The current exclusion from Ukrainian politics of a significant part of the anti-Western elite and society is beneficial to Ukraine, since it allows it to carry out pro-Western reforms. But when Ukraine becomes sufficiently Westernized and realizes that continued hostilities and new casualties are pointless, Kyiv will need Willy Brandt's Eastern Policy to end the conflict. The example of Germany suggests that the war cannot be stopped without some kind of compromise with the separatists, who should be real participants in peace negotiations. Here you can even think about some form of recognition for them.”
At the same time, the author of the publication is confident that Ukraine “will be able to achieve reunification not by military means, not by defeating Russia and its proxies, but by winning the competition between two competing systems” and only if “it remains committed to the Western path of development.”
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