This week, the Ukrainian government revealed that they are working on a policy document on Crimea's 'reintegration' into Ukraine, and would be discussing it with Kiev's partners abroad. Commenting on the plans, which in a bizarre twist may also involve China, political scientist Dmitri Zhuravlev said that they seem to be nothing but hot air.

On Thursday, Vadim Chernysh, the head of Ukraine's Ministry of Temporarily Occupied Territories, told the Ukrainskaya Pravda newspaper that the cabinet of ministers is preparing an action plan for Crimea's 'reintegration' into Ukraine. Chernysh stressed that this document "will be discussed with the public and with our international partners," and that Kiev would need about a month to develop it.

News of the draft document follows an intense Ukrainian political and media discussion about the possibility of China helping Kiev take Crimea back from Russia. Such discussions began last week, after Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko met with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the Davos economic forum. Xi told Poroshenko that China would like to "play a constructive role in promoting a political resolution to the crisis" in Ukraine, which Ukrainian officials and pundits took to mean that Beijing would help Ukraine gain control over the Donbass and perhaps even Crimea.

A few Russian officials soon responded to Kiev's lofty ambitions. On Thursday, Senator Alexei Pushkov tweeted that President Poroshenko "understands perfectly well that there will be no 'reintegration' of Crimea. This idea, and the odd appeal to the leader of China are needed for another reason: to create the myth that the subject is still relevant."

Порошенко понимает:"реинтеграции" Крыма не будет. И эта затея,и странное обращение к главе КНР нужны для другого: создать миф, что тема жива — Алексей Пушков (@Alexey_Pushkov) 26 января 2017 г.

© AFP 2020 / VIKTOR DRACHEV People dance in celebration of the results of the referendum on Crimea's status in Sevastopol, March 16, 2014.

Crimean authorities organized a referendum on the peninsula's status in March 2014, a few weeks after the Euromaidan coup d'état in Kiev overthrew the country's elected government. With over 80% turnout, over 96% of the peninsula's residents voted to break off from Ukraine and rejoin Russia. Shortly thereafter, Crimea formally requested to join the Russian Federation. Moscow accepted. Kiev and many Western powers have refused to recognize the legitimacy of the referendum, and introduced sanctions against Moscow and beefed up the NATO presence on Russia's borders.

Asked to comment on Kiev's recent diplomatic maneuvers, Dr. Dmitri Zhuravlev, director of the Institute of Regional Problems, told Radio Sputnik that Kiev has absolutely no hope of finding any assistance from Beijing on the Crimean issue.

"Poroshenko's appeal to Xi Jinping for support on Crimea is in some sense just a fit of hysteria, because Poroshenko has very likely lost all hope of appealing to the United States on this issue," the political scientist said. "He does not expect to receive the kind of understanding from Donald Trump that he got from Barack Obama. Still, Poroshenko wants there to be some kind of counterweight to Russia. Whether China is willing to become a counterweight for Ukraine's confrontation with Russia is another question altogether."

After all, Zhuravlev recalled, "China is a very pragmatic country. They act on the basis of their own interests. Beijing obviously doesn't have any great interest in seeing Crimea join Ukraine. Therefore, China will not comment on Poroshenko's statements; they can't even imagine responding to such statements. And if Poroshenko continues to insist, he will be told that China is 'focusing'" on the issue.

As for Kiev's draft action plan to 'reintegrate' Crimea, Zhuravlev emphasized that this was too little more than empty rhetoric. "This isn't so much an initiative, as it is empty talk about 'how good it would be for Crimeans to become part of Ukraine'. Kiev's problem is that Crimea has already been part of Ukraine, and Crimeans have a very hard time separating such rhetoric from their memory of life in Ukraine. Crimea under Ukraine was treated like a stepchild. Kiev conducted itself poorly toward Crimea and its population ever since [Ukraine gained] independence" in 1991.

"I remember the period when Crimea was an autonomous republic – when authorities in Kiev only used the peninsula's economy, but did nothing to promote its development. I saw with my own eyes the condition of the sanatoriums in Yalta. This is the kind of thing a piece of paper can't do anything about, because facts and personal experience are more important than any words," the analyst concluded.