EXPLAINER
The story so far: Three regions of the erstwhile Commonwealth of Independent States, Abkhazia in northwestern Georgia, Transnistria, a breakaway state in Moldova, and South Ossetia, also in Georgia, are territories with internal but not external sovereignty. One of the solutions to settle the crisis over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is for the Donbas republics of Donestk and Luhansk to follow this model and exist as de facto states.
