Addressing a forum in Mariupol, a port city in the Ukrainian-controlled part of the Donetsk Oblast, on October 31, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy outlined an upcoming “state strategy for the reintegration of the Donbas and Crimea” into Ukraine. The dual-purpose forum included a conference for international and Ukrainian investors, as well as a “unity forum” for dialogue between the government and civil society.
Mr. Zelenskyy’s speech may, at best, be taken as an introduction to a forthcoming strategy for reintegration of the occupied territories. Composed of broad generalities, this introduction enumerates four features that the strategy must necessarily entail: transparency, consensus, realism and state capacity to apply the strategy in practice. Within these principles, the strategy must, of course, be balanced, pragmatic and ready for certain compromises to attain its goals. Self-evidently, it must also combine “diplomacy, information and humanitarian policies, as these cannot exist separately from each other.” In sum, “Ukraine needs peace, but a peace on our terms.” The ultimate objective is “to end the war and get all of Ukraine’s territories back” (President.gov.ua, accessed October 30).