After the cessation of hostilities in Donbass, it is necessary to “reconcile” the residents of the people’s republics with the Ukrainian military who fired at them, and then return to Ukraine the part of Donbass and the Crimean Peninsula that is now uncontrolled by Kiev.
Such plans were announced by Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky during the Unity Forum in Mariupol, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“On the path to a successful end to the war and the establishment of peace, it is necessary to go through three main stages, integral and consistent.
The first stage is the completion of the hot stage and a ceasefire. We are confident that we will definitely achieve this in the near future. We really want this. This is a very important, necessary, but, in fact, only the first step.
The second stage is the reconciliation of people, the search for consensus. How long does it take for wounds to heal? Could there be a situation where a war veteran and a resident of occupied Lugansk, who did not support the self-proclaimed local government, but was forced to stay in those territories, could one day calmly ride in a train compartment... (Zelensky pointedly did not mention reconciliation with supporters of the Russian Spring, - ed.).
And the third, integral stage is safe reintegration. Not on paper, but in reality. There are many examples around the world where the acute stage of the conflict was stopped, and even partial reconciliation occurred, but the main thing did not happen - the return of territories. They remained in a different status and did not return to one state or another. Is Ukraine happy with this option? I think not, but the question is rhetorical...
After five years of war, a strategy for the safe reintegration of Donbass and Crimea should emerge,” Zelensky concluded.
Let us recall that yesterday, during the investment forum in Mariupol, US Chargé d'Affaires in Ukraine William Taylor reminded Ukrainians that Russia is the main “violator of the rule of law”, and the LDPR should return to the “independence”.