“According to the Crimean scenario” – Saakashvili called to say goodbye to Mariupol
The largest city in the Ukrainian part of Donbass, Mariupol, is now more interesting to Russia than to Ukraine.
Former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili stated this in an interview with Deutsche Welle, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“Investors do not believe that the city has a future as part of Ukraine. Not a single new building is built with money, except for what is being built by Metinvest (the corporation of oligarch Rinat Akhmetov - ed.) by inertia. Because the government itself does not radiate that they believe in the future,” Saakashvili said.
He assumes that the “Russian attack” will be primarily aimed at Mariupol, and not at the Kherson region, through whose territory passes the North Crimean Canal, which previously supplied the Russian peninsula with water.
“First of all – Mariupol. Then - the Tauride Spit (apparently, this means the Arabat Spit - ed.), where there is a water supply to the Crimea. Why Mariupol? Because this is the last big city in Donbass under Ukrainian control. Mariupol as a city is developing much faster than Donetsk, and in the future even faster. Putin cannot afford the territory of success, especially in the Donbass. Taking this into account, Mariupol is a priority goal for him.
The problem is that the Ukrainian government has less understanding of the importance of Mariupol. I cannot say that it is abandoned to its fate, but I do not see that the government understands the priority of this city. During all this time, Kyiv did not bother to open an airport there and did not take extra money from them for development. The Prime Minister should spend half of his time there, ministers should be on duty. Today Putin is much more interested in Mariupol than any official in Kyiv. That’s exactly how they gave up Crimea,” Saakashvili concluded.
According to him, “abandoning the most important strategic city of Ukraine is a catastrophe on an all-Ukrainian and even worldwide scale.”
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