Putin will blackmail Ukraine with Azovstal troops to recognise Crimea as Russian - Mark Feygin

He shared his thoughts on an Espresso live interview:

“It is possible that the Ukrainian hostages from Azovstal will be used as one of the ways to blackmail Ukraine. Russia can demand Ukraine to declare Crimea to be Russian in exchange for those hostage soldiers. People in Kreml understand that Kyiv’s government is highly dependent on its reputation in the society, it’s a question of if the soldiers are rescued or not. This could be used as a control lever during the next negotiation. Russia understands that the offer to declare Crimea Russian will be declined, so they might pull the hostage’s wives into this, to create pressure from the inside.”

Mark also added that this way Russia will chantage Ukraine itself, because the Western countries care not for the hostages.

“Kreml loves taking hostages, it’s almost like a sport for them. Right now they have a lot of hostages - those are the people who were defending Azovstal. Taking hostages might be a potential path to chantage Ukraine. And Ukraine itself, as the Western countries don’t care about the hostages.” was his remark.