Former Defense Minister of Ukraine: Putin has won the battle for Crimea

Former Defense Minister of Ukraine Anatoliy Hrytsenko admits that politically, Russia has already won the battle for Crimea.

UkrLife quotes him as saying that Russian President Vladimir Putin has achieved his goal: the West has almost forgotten Crimea even though, formally, it does not recognize it as part of Russia.

“Putin has achieved his goal. He has taken Crimea away. Nobody is talking about it any longer. Formally, they in the West refuse to recognize that territory but there are lots of other unrecognized territories in the world. In 2008, he took two republics away from Georgia. Nobody has recognized them, except Syria and Venezuela, but that didn’t help matters. Crimea is no longer on agenda in the West. And there is no single mention of it in the Minsk agreements,” Hrytsenko said.

As EADaily noted earlier, the Kremlin’s firm position on Crimea is beginning to pay off. More and more politicians in Europe are inclined to improve relations with Russia without mentioning Crimea as a precondition.

They suggest “encapsulating” this issue. Naturally, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry is displeased.