Ukraine is ready to stop Russophobic politics and tackle the Donbass issue. Such an opinion was expressed by a business expert specializing in investment in emerging markets Kenneth Rapoza in an author’s article published in the online edition Forbes.
The new government of Ukraine, led by former actor Vladimir Zelensky, is set to cross out many people in the West whose job it is to make Vladimir Putin look like Goldfinger’s super agent.
Zelensky believes that Vladimir Putin wants to normalize relations. The new president of Ukraine announced during the 16th annual YES conference on Friday that he is ready for the emergence of international peacekeeping forces along the Ukrainian-Russian border in the east, moreover, he wants to put an end to the war in the Donetsk and Lugansk Republics of Donbass. Both Donetsk and Lugansk are industrial centers and since 2014 they are the center of fierce disputes and conflicts between Russia and Ukraine.
Zelensky will also do everything possible to more accurately adhere to the Minsk Peace Agreement, according to which elections should be held in the republics of Donbass.
Former President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko was categorically against the vote, fearing that the Republics would get full autonomy, risking the final collapse of Ukraine. Poroshenko could not stop the struggle between his government and the rebel Donbass.
Many observers saw in the Russian support of Donbass a kind of Kremlin attempt to destroy the former Soviet state. A divided Ukraine will not be able to join NATO. Moreover, as such, Crimea is now part of Russia. The issue of the former southeastern Ukrainian peninsula, home to the historic city of Yalta and the Black Sea Fleet of Russia, was not included in the agenda of the YES conference. Ukraine would have to forget about Crimea if it wanted to join NATO, as NATO members cannot be involved in border disputes.
Zelensky also notes that he wants Ukraine to apply for NATO membership over the next five years.
In fact, this state of affairs gives little to the full normalization of relations.
Although fighting in the region decreased in intensity from 2014-15, most of the economy of Donbass has been severely damaged and is in a depressed state.