(NewsNation) — Maintaining or even regaining its territorial integrity, according to an expert in world politics, is of the utmost importance to Ukraine, particularly as it approaches the negotiating table with Russia.
“If Ukraine gives up much more territory, it’s going to present two problems,” said Erich de la Fuente, political analyst and a professor of international relations at Florida International University, during an appearance on “Morning in America.”
“It’s always good to go back and look at history,” he said. “Ukraine already gave up territory in 2014 … Crimea and part of the Donbas, and it only led to further aggression from the Kremlin and (Russian President) Vladimir Putin.”
According to de la Fuente, if Ukraine were to give up any part of its territory, it would “encourage the Kremlin to, once it regroups, maybe come back and do a further invasion.”
“We forget that people that live in those areas would be going from living in a democracy to an authoritarian government, he continued. “And that’s not something that Ukrainian people, especially after fighting eight years, especially after fighting one month, will tolerate.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a video address that Ukraine is seeing “a buildup of Russian forces for new strikes on the Donbas, and we are preparing for that.”
Zelenskyy has delivered emotional pleas for military assistance from the U.S. and its NATO allies.
“I think at this point, President Zelenskyy is thinking of doing a counteroffensive trying to gain back a lot of the territory that Russia has taken,” de la Fuente said. “So when you eventually get to a negotiating table, he has an upper hand to be able to hold, especially a territorial integrity of Ukraine.”
Perched on the Sea of Azov, Mariupol has been a key target that has been relentlessly pounded and has seen some of the worst suffering of the war.
The fall of the southern port city would help Russia establish a land bridge to Crimea, seized from Ukraine in 2014.
“I think in terms of a peace deal, the one thing that President Zelenskyy would do is agree to the pre-borders before the war escalated,” de la Fuente said. “That means Crimea remaining in Russian hands, but not being officially recognized as Russia and one-third of Donbas.”
“Look to the south,” he said. “The Russians, that’s where they’ve made a lot of gains early on and hold because they’re trying to build a landbridge from Russia all the way to Crimea.”
“They hold a lot of territory along the Ukrainian coast, and they want to keep that,” he continued. “Vladimir Putin wants to keep that and that’s not something that Zelenskyy can do.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
