Crimea and Donbass are punishment to Kiev for refusing to join the new empire that Moscow has gathered around itself. This conclusion was made by the head of the Association of Jewish Public Organizations and Communities of Ukraine Iosif Zisels. According to him, he knew how the story would turn, another 10 years before the Kiev coup. “Russia as the metropolis of the empire, which is trying to reassemble its empire in a new form and has already drawn Belarus, Armenia, and Kazakhstan in different ways,” Zisels shared his reflections with the “Apostrophe”. Ukraine, in his opinion, it could not attract. "Political blackmail, various financial schemes - all this served to ensure that Ukraine does not break away from the empire. And she comes off ", - said the head of the Association. True, it comes off not because it seeks so much independence, but simply this is the natural "course of history": "No empire is more viable than a certain time. ...

Not a single empire has survived in the world, but Russia persists, wants to preserve and revive it ". Armed conflict, according to Sisels, was the last resort. "We began to think about it, I and my comrades, since 2004, ten years before the war," he says. However, the West turned out to be an unreliable ally: it was “going too long”, so Russia was able to succeed in its plans. Ukrainians “exaggerated the possibilities of the West,” Zisels summed up, answering the question about the reasons for the loss of the Crimea and Donbass.