Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky and his team expect to raise the stakes in the Normandy Format negotiations by including the return of Crimea on the agenda. However, Russia will not allow this to be done.
UIAMP Director Ruslan Bortnik stated this on the UKRLIFE.TV channel, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“People around the president believe that in this way they are raising the stakes, forcing Russia to be more negotiable, to make deeper compromises in part of Donbass: “well, if you do not agree to the Ukrainian position in part of Donbass, then we will also attract Crimea.”
But in this situation, in a war that is exhausting nerves, politics, the economy, and the army, we are not in a better condition than Russia, to put it mildly.
Moreover, the situation in 14-15 for Russia was much worse than it is today. Yes, the Russian economy is tired, and there is a certain fatigue within Russian society, but the global environment is changing.
The Russian economy has adapted. Russia signed these agreements in 2015, but was itself in a situation of shock – military, sanctions.
Now the situation is changing, everyone has adapted to some extent. And if even then we could not include the issue of Crimea in the negotiation format, then we will not be able to now,” the expert concluded.