Ukraine talks: is peace any closer?

Writing on Facebook, political scientist Abbas mocks the Kremlin’s obsession with gaining control over the Donetsk region:

“Putin claims that Ukraine is an artificial state with arbitrary borders. At the same time, he demands that the Donbass be handed over to him precisely within the administrative boundaries defined by that very same artificial state. The Russian President’s logic is flawed. For him, Ukraine’s borders are illegal, yet the borders of its regions are sacrosanct. So sacrosanct, in fact, that hundreds of thousands of Russians can be sent to their graves for them, month after month, year after year in their defence. Vladimir Medinsky [head of the Russian delegation] spoke again today of ‘Russia’s historic territories’. It’s just odd that he seeks their borders not in history books, but in Ukrainian administrative records.”