DISINFO: Putin paralysed Ukraine in Nagorno-Karabakh
SUMMARY
What happened in Nagorno-Karabakh and the strategy of President Vladimir Putin paralysed Ukrainian leadership. Their plans in the Donbas and Crimea are now unfeasible. Ukraine was discussing military cooperation with Turkey, but the peace deal shocked both leaderships. If Ukraine, following Azerbaijan’s example, tried to take back the Donbas with force now, it would give Russia a free hand to act.
RESPONSE
Recurring Russian disinformation about alleged Ukrainian attempts to exploit the Nagorno-Karabakh crisis by taking with force Donbas and Crimea.
There is no link between the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and the war in Ukraine. The recent escalation in the Nagorno-Karabakh region is a continuation of the decades-old conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia, while the war in Eastern Ukraine is a well-documented act of ongoing aggression by Russian armed forces, since February 2014.
Ukraine did express support for Azerbaijan's territorial integrity, but called for a peaceful solution and said it supports the efforts of Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group - which includes the Russian Federation.
It is true that Ukraine and Turkey signed a military cooperation agreement in October 2020, but it had nothing to do with the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh. The sides agreed on, among others, cooperation in the defence industry.
The emergence of Russian forces in Nagorno-Karabakh does not give Russia a free hand in the Donbas in any way, as the Donbas is Ukrainian territory, and Kyiv would certainly not agree to the presence of Russian peacekeepers, unlike the sides involved in Nagorno-Karabakh.