Newsweek: Putin needs corridor to Crimea by winter

It can provoke unrests in Ukraine's east.

It was written by Benny Avni for Newsweek, Censor.net reports.

“The prospect of the supply lines between Russia and Crimea being cut off is the key to understanding what drives Putin’s Ukrainian adventure,” Anvi writes. When Crimeans voted in March for rejoining Russia, there was a brief popular feeling of euphoria. “That is now a faded memory,” the journalist thinks.

Observers from both Ukraine and the European Union say Crimea’s residents—including the thousands of Russian military that make up the occupation force, as well as those Russian sailors serving in the Russian Black Sea naval bases—are suffering from low morale, Anvi writes. The prices of many staple food items have tripled. Sanctions caused inflation that furhter worsened the ailing economy.

“Putin has invested a lot in his Crimean gamble. To succeed, diplomats say, Moscow must now secure the supply lines through Ukrainian territory,” the journalist writes. Delivery of food and other essential supplies by air or by ship is too expensive to sustain for long, so Putin needs a land corridor, Anvi thinks.

Resistance is being built up around the key city of Mariupol, which Russia must capture if it wants to create a land bridge to Crimea, Anvi writes. While the Ukrainians may not be a match for the much better equipped Russian army, clashes between the two sides are expected to be brutal and casualties heavy, the journalist thinks.