Russian Foreign Affairs Minister Sergey Lavrov says the future status of Ukraine’s Donbas should be like what Moscow has proposed for Moldova’s breakaway region of Transnistria, Vitaly Portnikov reports. That would mean the permanent federalization and neutralization of Ukraine ensured by the continued presence of Russian troops.
The author of this plan, Andrey Yermak, a deputy prime minister of the Russian Federation, has been in active contact with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian commentator says.
This idea is now in active competition with two others: the first is one that Vladislav Surkov, an aide to Vladimir Putin, has long been associated with – the preservation of “the peoples republics” as quasi-states, as levers on Ukraine and an instrument for the profit of the Russian political elite; and the second, that of Dmitry Kozak, who wants “the incorporation” of these republics into Ukraine but with the preservation of their “state infrastructure” and of course the Russian military presence.