MOSCOW, Oct 11 - RIA Novosti. The seizure of the Black Sea ports and the south-east of Ukraine will be enough to win a hypothetical Russian-Ukrainian war, Deputy Director General of the Institute of National Strategy Alexander Kostin believes.
In an interview with "Ukraine.<url>" the political scientist said that if a military conflict occurs between Moscow and Kiev, it will be enough for Russia to block the Black Sea coast of Ukraine, occupy its ports and shift power in the southern regions — Odessa, Kherson, Kharkiv and Dnipropetrovsk regions.
The expert believes that after this, centrifugal forces will be launched in the country, in particular, in the regions bordering Poland and Hungary.
"The main thing is to connect the regions to the banking system of Russia so that commercial and industrial activity does not stop," the expert continued.
He also added that Kiev as a military target is interesting only in order to block political and financial activities in Ukraine.
Relations between Moscow and Kiev deteriorated against the background of the situation in the Donbass after the coup in Ukraine in 2014. The authorities of the republic have repeatedly accused Russia of interfering in the internal affairs of the state. Moscow denies the charges and calls them unacceptable. The Kremlin has repeatedly stated that the country is not involved in the internal Ukrainian conflict and is interested in Kiev overcoming the political and economic crisis.
