Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has 'come to understand that the Crimean wound now needs to be cauterized,' one expert told Newsweek.
The Russian annexation of Crimea is completely illegitimate, and this is the basis of all NATO states' thinking, he told."They know that that caution has nothing to do with international law, but they're just a little bit more reluctant."
Moscow believes Russia has always maintained a"strong military and cultural presence there," she toldBut behind this idea is the forced"Russification" of Crimea's inhabitants not just through the Stalin or Soviet decades of the 20th century. There have been centuries of ethnic cleansing on the peninsula, not least of Crimean Tatars, since the 18th century, Finnin said.
Russia bases its Black Sea fleet in the Crimean city of Sevastopol—a"well-equipped port, which are hard to come by," according to Ferris. A natural harbor and one of the"most established bases in the Black Sea," the warm-water port of Sevastopol adds to the"enormous strategic value" Crimea holds for Putin, she said.
It would also dampen the Kremlin's appetite for supporting separatist fighters in the Donbas region, he toldBut Ukraine attacking Crimea could also play neatly into the Kremlin's playbook, Ferris said. Kyiv attempting to retake the peninsula would bolster Moscow's narrative that hostile, Western-backed forces are attacking Russia to ensure its"ultimate destruction."
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