Victor Pinchuk’s recent opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal, “Ukraine Must Make Painful Compromises for Peace with Russia,” does not take into account that any plan for Ukraine’s temporarily occupied territories must first consider the will of the people living in those territories and seek their betterment. During a recent trip to Washington, DC, I talked to policymakers about my plan for the reintegration of the currently occupied territories in eastern Ukraine. My seven-point plan includes a strategy of demilitarization, reintegration, restoration of local authorities’ power, the return of land and property to displaced persons, local elections, and the return of normal life. However, one question kept coming up: “But how do we first end the war? How do we make the people of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions lay down their arms?”
OP-ED
Valentyn Nalyvaichenko: How to end the war in Ukraine in 2017
Anastasia Vlasova
