Like the tool he is, Trump favored Putin’s interests, squeezed Ukraine on military aid and tried to get dirt on the Bidens. Meanwhile an already weakened Ukrainian domestic politics began to capitulate to Russia while the US removed an ambassador. There were resignations and some will appear before Congress soon. Trump will probably get some sort of a kickback for removing Russian sanctions. With Russian banks unsanctioned, more loans for Trump.
While President Zelenskyy is keen to act upon his pre-election promise of quickly ending the war in Donbas, many Ukrainians suspect that Ukraine’s capitulation to Russia might be the price.
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According to Roman Bezsmertnyi, Ukraine’s former representative to the Minsk process, Steinmeier’s formula was brought back to life after on 12 July 2019 Vadym Prystaiko attended a meeting of advisors of the heads of states of the Normandy Four. Russia now insists on this formula: on 27 August 2019, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov declared that one of the conditions for the next summit of the Normandy Four would be to have Steinmeier’s formula recorded in writing.
The problem with the formula is that it can be interpreted in many ways. Many Ukrainians accuse Russia of trying to yank the elections of the territories and their “special status” out of the wider Minsk context and ignore the safety components, and, most importantly – Ukraine’s control over the border. As well, Russia is being accused of wanting to legalize the rule of the militants it is backing and give the now-occupied territories a “special status.”
euromaidanpress.com/...