Ruslan Shevchenko: The Federalization of Ukraine and Moldova is Being Promoted to Proclaim the Independence of the Donbass and Transnistria

Moldovan political expert Ruslan Shevchenko believes that all the talks about the federalization of Ukraine and Moldova are aimed at proclaiming the independence of the Donbass and Transnistria. He said this during the 12th Kyiv Security Forum, organized by the Arseniy Yatsenyuk Open Ukraine Foundation.

According to him, in both Transnistria and in the Donbass, Russia is promoting identical narratives: it is historically a Russian land, historically the population has been oriented towards Russia, they will not survive without Russia, only Russia can protect them from NATO.

He noted that since Transnistria has been an indefinite state longer than the Donbass, there have already been attempts to use similar strategies to those currently used in Ukraine. "In 2003, the leader of Transnistria, Igor Smirnov, publicly announced that if Transnistria was transformed into a federal entity of Moldova, the day after signing this agreement, Transnistria would cut any relations with Moldova, will leave the federation and proclaim its independence," Shevchenko said.

He believes that if Ukraine agrees to federalization – the development of events will be the same, because the Kremlin's ultimate goal is the independence of the Donbass and Transnistria.

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The annual international event Kyiv Security Forum was launched by the Arseniy Yatsenyuk Open Ukraine Foundation in 2007. Since then, the Forum has become a platform for high-level international discussions on current issues of national security, security issues of the Black Sea region, Europe and the world.