The moderation shown by Putin in his speech on May 9 and the olive branches launched by the West, starting with the American Pentagon which started talks with Moscow to probe the possibility of a “ceasefire”, are showing that there could now be despite everything, room for maneuver to put an end to the war in Ukraine.
But on what basis should these blessed peace negotiations start? A few days ago, interviewed by Bruno Vespa, the number one in Kiev, Zelensky, while declaring himself willing to deal directly with Putin, nevertheless added that Crimea cannot be the subject of the negotiation unlike what he had declared a few weeks ago.
On the other hand, several international observers think that the peninsula on the Black Sea should be the starting point of the negotiations. Why from there? For a very simple reason: Crimea, regardless of all the atrocities committed in recent months by the soldiers of Moscow, has always been a Russophile. We must not, in fact, forget that, in the referendum on the future of the peninsula of March 16, 2014 (a referendum that was not recognized by Ukraine and the European Union in any case), 95% of voters declared themselves in favor of annexation to Russia. .
There should therefore be no doubt that, precisely on the basis of the principle of self-determination of peoples, the majority of the inhabitants of Crimea felt and feel more Russian than Ukrainian.
And today, if the final transition of the region into the Moscow orbit were to be truly formalized, there could be good counterparts for the Ukrainians. In other words, there would be more room for maneuver for Ukraine over everything else to finally reach peace: the sooner an agreement is reached between Moscow and Kiev, the sooner the international emergency that is killing victims not only on the war front will be mitigated. .