Russia is dangling a return of Donbas territory to Ukraine under special conditions in return for water for Crimea, two-thirds of which is suffering from severe drought. Russia already spends £4 billion a year on both territories and the drought is adding to sanctions pressure. Hostile comments by United Russia politicians towards former Soviet republics around the recent constitutional ‘referendum’ came amid Russia’s accelerating push to give Donbas residents citizenship. Ahead of September’s Kavkaz (Caucasus)–2020 military exercise, such events signpost Russian efforts to corner Ukraine into restarting water supplies to Crimea before a possible third-straight dry winter.
Russia's War Against Ukraine
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Victor Madeira: The Crimean drought
A picture taken in the Crimea's Kirovsky region on April 27, 2014, shows a view the empty Northern Crimean Canal, which used to supply the peninsula's water.
