An excerpt:
Mykhaylo Pashkov, co-director of the Foreign Policy and International Security Program of the highly respected Razumkov Center in Kyiv, has written an exceptionally timely, sober, and important report on current conditions, as well as an astute analysis of the future of the Russian-occupied Donbas. It should be required reading for all Ukrainian policy makers. Once translated into English, it should also be required reading for Western policy makers.
Pashkov has no illusions about the occupied enclave’s return to Ukraine anytime soon. He has even fewer illusions about the likelihood that the Minsk accords will lead to anything. After all, the key stumbling block is Russia, whose “maximally simplified position vis-à-vis regulating the Donbas amounts to this: we will continue killing your soldiers until you change your Constitution according to our wishes.”
The most important part of Pashkov’s analysis concerns the occupied enclave itself, where the Russian Federation has established “a militarized puppet pseudo-state totalitarian formation,” a “nano-Russia administered by the militants but controlled by the Russian security services.” As a result, there has emerged in this “anomalous zone” a “political-ideological, social-cultural reality that is hostile to Ukraine.”
This ends our live blogging for August 8. Be sure to check back tomorrow for our continuing coverage.