For its own good, Ukraine should let go of Crimea and the parts of the Donbas where Russian-backed armed groups have seized control, another public figure has said.
In an interview with the publication Apostrophe on Jan. 8, Alexander J. Motyl, an expert in Ukrainian politics at Rutgers University in the United States, said that the reintegration of the Donbas and Crimea into Ukraine would instantly bankrupt the country, putting a stop to reforms, democracy and integration with the West.
“Ukraine has four strategic priorities – survival, strengthening of security, reform and progression to the West, and preservation of democracy. They can be realized only without the Donbas and Crimea,” Motyl said.
He warned that in a full-scale war with Russia, Ukraine would inevitably lose, but on the other hand, if Russian President Vladimir Putin were to renounce the Donbas, the area would become a “Trojan horse” – a gift that Ukraine should decline.
Of course, if Putin shows a willingness to return the occupied areas of Donetsk and Luhansk, Motyl said, then Kyiv, for the sake of the country’s own self-preservation, should give the areas a confederal status – almost complete sovereignty.
“Let them have their own political system, budget, taxes, (but) without representation in parliament. Let them only formally be a part of Ukraine and not interfere with Ukraine,” Motyl said.
He said the question lies in whether the residents of the Donbas and Crimea would ever truly support Ukraine and become “real citizens” of the country.
“Hardly,” he concluded.
Motyl has been long-time supporter of Ukraine cutting ties with the annexed Crimea and Russian-occupied Donbas. His latest comments partially agree with a recent opinion piece written by Ukrainian oligarch Viktor Pinchuk.
The Kyiv-based billionaire wrote an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal on Dec. 29 calling for Ukraine to relinquish its claim to Crimea, along with plans for European Union and NATO membership, in exchange for peace in the Donbas.
As the Kyiv Post reported on Dec. 30, Pinchuk’s comments came under fire from Refat Chubarov, the head of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people, and independent lawmaker Hanna Hopko.
Weighing in on the issue, Motyl dismissed the idea of giving up on European Union membership, but backed Pinchuk on abandoning the goal of joining NATO.
Meanwhile, Russian State Duma deputy Svetlana Savchenko, who rose to power in Crimea during the unlawful elections held there in 2016, has compared the peninsula’s annexation to a miracle.
Savchenko wrote on Facebook that in January 2014, a set of holy relics, called the “Gifts of the Magi” left the Orthodox Christian monastery on Mount Athos in Greece and were brought to Russia, Ukraine and Belarus.
She said Simferopol and Sevastopol were originally not included in the relics’ travel itinerary.
“But the Lord works in mysterious ways,” she wrote.
“And we had the incredible joy of meeting these relics. And with Crimea, too, there was a miracle!!!”
As Krym Realii reported on Jan. 7, former Crimean Deputy Prime Minister Rustam Temirgaliev told media that in January 2014, Russian State Duma deputies arranged for the Gifts of the Magi to be sent to Crimea by plane.
The publication stated that it was later revealed that the same aircraft brought to the peninsula Igor Girkin, one of the Russian military intelligence officers who led the Kremlin’s operation to invade and annex the Ukrainian territory. Also on board was Russian businessman Konstantin Malofeev, who is said to have been the campaign financier of the former Russian-appointed Sevastopol governor, Aleksei Chaly.
