Washington Post: "The unwavering claim to Crimea illustrates the unresolvability of the conflict"

The Washington Post notes that the Crimean issue could become an impetus for a nuclear war and prevent globally from ending the conflict. The article says:

“Putin made it clear that any attempts by Ukraine to return Crimea would cross the red line, which he would not tolerate… The West, supporting Ukraine, fears that any military intervention by Ukraine in Crimea could provoke Putin into decisive action, up to the use of a nuclear bomb.”

The mutual claims of the two countries to the Crimea leave no chance for peace between them and turn the war into a long-term territorial conflict (like Karabakh or the Gaza Strip), emphasizes edition:

“The steadfastness of the claim to Crimea illustrates the intractability of the conflict, and it is difficult to imagine that the struggle for the peninsula will be resolved without further bloodshed. The refusal of either side to back down threatens to turn the war into a multi-year conflict, much like a territorial standoff over the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, Nagorno-Karabakh or Kurdistan.

In addition, the Russian Federation requires the recognition of four other Ukrainian regions – Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporozhye and Kherson. According to the Washington Post, it is possible that it was the Crimean issue that became the reason for the new Russian invasion. Nikolai Petrov, a senior fellow at Chatham House in London, says that the policy of returning the peninsula put forward by Ukrainian President Zelensky on the eve of the war was one of the “triggers”:

“The creation of the Crimean Platform and the West’s permission to play this card started a very dangerous game. Eventually it led to the current war. Now, some Western officials are hoping that an agreement on the transfer of Crimea to the Russian Federation can become the basis for a diplomatic end to the war. However, Kiev rejects this idea as dangerous naivety, and the Russians say they will not agree to give up what is already theirs.”

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