Russia and Ukraine looking for an exit strategy
Russia, like cream, referendum in Donbass
When the speed war failed, an attempt was made to divide
Ukraine says fake referendum doesn’t work
Zelensky: “Nato Abandonment, Neutralization”
The 5th Armistice Negotiation in Turkey on the 28th and 30th
▲ Residents receive relief food distributed by invading forces in the recently occupied town of Trohizvenka with the support of Russian troops by the Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR), a pro-Russian separatist rebel government in Donbas, Ukraine, on the 27th (local time).
Trohisvenka Tas Yonhap News
The Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR), founded by pro-Russian separatists in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine, holds a referendum to join the Russian Federation. As Russia struggles in the invasion of Ukraine, contrary to expectations, critics say that it is trying to make Ukraine into a divided country like the Korean Peninsula by focusing on the south and eastern regions it has already occupied.
According to the Associated Press, LPR head Leonid Pasechnik in Donbas announced on the 27th (local time) that “a referendum will be held soon asking to join the Russian Federation.” On the 24th of last month, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that the justification for the invasion of Ukraine was the protection of the LPR and the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR). It is analyzed that these republics, which have further invaded neighboring Ukraine with the support of the Russian military, are in the process of separating them from Ukraine, just like in Crimea in the past.
In response, Kirillo Budanov, head of Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence Agency, protested, saying, “If Russia cannot control the whole of Ukraine, it is trying to split Ukraine in two by creating a region controlled by Russia.” “(LPR’s) fake referendums are invalid and have no legal effect. “Ukrainians will engage in guerrilla warfare in Russian-occupied territory,” he warned.
There is a view that Russia’s attempt this time was not able to overwhelm the war, so it turned from the strategy of ‘occupying the entire Ukrainian territory’. A Ukrainian government official said, “Russia realized that it could not occupy a large Ukrainian city. In a week or two, the troops will be withdrawn from Kiiu (Kyiv) and Kharkiv (Kharkov) (northern) and sent to Donbas,” the Young Daily Guardian reported. This means that the ‘special military operation’ declared by President Putin at the start of the war will end and the second stage ‘operation to liberate Donbass’ will begin.
Accordingly, the fighting in the southern port city of Mariupol, the biggest battleground of this war, is expected to intensify further. This is because Russia must seize this territory to completely divide the southeastern region from Ukraine’s territory by linking the southern Crimean Peninsula, which it forcibly annexed in 2014 with the eastern Donbas region, which it seized this time. Currently, both Russia and Ukraine have an exit strategy rather than prolonging the war. It is a situation that requires a color scheme. Russia is physically in a state of bankruptcy due to unprecedented economic sanctions from the West, including the US, while physically struggling as expected. In Ukraine, more than 1,000 civilians have died, more than 10 million have lost their homes, and $63 billion of infrastructure has been destroyed.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, at a briefing with Russian media on the same day, expressed his intention to compromise with Russia in relation to the disposal of the Donbas region and the neutralization of NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) membership.
Russia and Ukraine have agreed to continue negotiations on the fifth armistice in Turkey, but there have been mixed announcements about the start date of the negotiations. Ukrainian negotiating team David Harahamiya, head of the ruling party, announced “face-to-face negotiations” on the 28th and 30th, while Vladimir Medinsky, an adviser to the Russian negotiating team, and the Turkish presidential office announced the date of the meeting on the 29th and 30th.
Meanwhile, U.S. President Joe Biden, who said in a speech in Warsaw the day before, that “this man (Putin) cannot remain in power,” replied “no” to reporters’ questions about whether the remarks meant a change of government in Russia. . On the same day, French President Emmanuel Macron said, “There should be no escalation of tensions,” and the comments were highly criticized in Europe.
Correspondent Lee Gyeong-ju, Washington
Reporter Lee Jung-soo, Seoul
