A non-neutral Ukraine, whatever the form, would pose a constant threat to modern Russia, Alexander Irkhin, a professor at the V. I. Vernadsky Crimean Federal University, told TASS in an interview.

“Moreover, Kiev must be not only neutral but also friendly toward Moscow. However, the second component has not yet been raised, as it is no longer of a legal nature,” he noted, recalling that Ukraine’s neutral status was a prerequisite for the “civilizational divorce” during the dissolution of the USSR.

“However, after just a few years, this condition began to gradually erode and be re-evaluated. The main reason was the power vacuum that the weak Russian Federation of the 1990s was unable to fill,” the expert added.