EU Should Make Ukraine Give Up Crimea to Avoid 'New Cold War'

The EU needs to make a number of important political decisions, including accepting the fact that Crimea is part of Russia, to avoid bringing the entire continent back into a Cold War, French newspaper Le Figaro said.

Relations between Russia and the EU remain tense, mainly due to the Ukrainian crisis, and to avoid a new Cold War on the continent, EU leaders need to find a compromise with Russia, Le Figaro stressed.

According to the newspaper, the EU's thesis on how to currently deal with Russia should be built around the following statement:

"The confrontation is recognized, it can't continue, reconciliation is unlikely, but a compromise is necessary."

EU leaders shouldn't kid themselves for too long: it's time to realize that the crisis is serious and further confrontation neither makes sense nor is beneficial to anyone on the continent. Now the main question is what does the EU need to do to get out of this difficult political situation with Russia?

Well, first of all the EU must stick to the Minsk peace agreements. Regardless of what's going on in eastern Ukraine right now, the EU should push Ukraine to establish a dialogue with Russia, Le Figaro said.

Second, it will be a good diplomatic move for Kiev to officially return Crimea back to Russia.

"At the end of the day, the secession of Crimea from Russia in favor of Ukraine in 1954 had occurred on a whim, initiated by Soviet leader [Nikita Khrushchev]," Le Figaro pointed out.

Finally, the EU could have used a similar strategy that Moscow offered to the EU that solved the Kosovo crisis. Since the unilateral declaration of Kosovo's independence from Serbia, Moscow said it would accept any political decision agreed both by Belgrade and Pristina. According to Le Figaro, the EU should take the same strategy — agree to support any solution bilaterally agreed by Moscow and Kiev.

Moscow and the European Union have seen a deterioration of relations since 2014 following an escalation of a Ukrainian internal conflict.

Since 2014, the bloc has introduced several rounds of anti-Russia sanctions, accusing Moscow of fueling the Ukrainian crisis, a claim the Kremlin has repeatedly denied.