The isolation of Vladimir Putin is a dangerous myth that Ukraine itself created and believed in. In fact, the positions of Russia and the EU on Donbass do not differ much, and Moscow, Paris and Berlin discuss Ukrainian affairs several times a year without the participation of Kyiv.
An expert from the organization, Ilya Kusa, stated this on the YouTube channel of the Ukrainian Institute of the Future, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“What all three parties agree on is that there is no alternative to Minsk, the ceasefire regime must be maintained, and Ukraine, as far as I understand, agreed with this, since just yesterday the Ministry of Defense published a press release that repeats the OSCE press release about that yes, this truce must be respected. But, in principle, nothing has changed. In essence, all three of them told Ukraine: there is no alternative, let’s continue to maintain the status quo,” Kusa said.
Regarding the negotiations between the leaders of the Normandy Four without the participation of Ukraine, the expert “revealed the secret” that such conversations have been taking place annually for the past seven years.
“Moreover, several times a year. – he emphasized. – Last year, too, it seems, there were two telephone conversations in this three-way format. Negotiations without Ukraine have been going on for a long time. Both for objective reasons, because they want to discuss something else besides Ukraine, because we still do not occupy all their attention, and for subjective reasons, since Ukraine, unfortunately, is rather a secondary player. She is “played” more than she plays. This is the reality we are in now.”
The expert added that it is high time for Ukraine to accept the fact that the Russian Federation is truly considered an influential player in Europe.
“The more we create the illusion that Russia is isolated, that no one wants to talk to Putin and so on, we are building a wall of illusion that we will simply fall off at some point,” Kusa warned.