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Ceasefire in Ukraine
| 2014-09-09 |
Ceasefire in Ukraine |
Certain agreements were reached in Minsk. The parties arranged the ceasefire in Donbass region, agreed to exchange the captives and to deliver the humanitarian aid to the South-West of Ukraine. The issue about the status of the self-proclaimed republics was not brought up on Friday. It will be discussed later. Russian delegates and senators expect that these agreements will help to keep peace Ukraine, but many experts predict the resumption of fighting, because of the divergence of views.
According to the Heidi Tagliavini, the special elected OSCE representative, the meeting of the OSCE, Russian, Ukrainian leaders and the delegates of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk republics resulted in singing the preliminary ceasefire protocol, that contains 12 points. “The most important point is the immediate ceasefire” – she said, although she did not disclose other points.
The President of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko, commanded to the general staff to cease the fire since 7 p.m. Moscow time and authorized the Ministry of Foreign affairs together with the OSCE group “to ensure the effective international control upon the ceasefire, which should be supported by both belligerent parties”, as published on the official President website. The ceasefire does not imply the withdrawal from the positions. The delegates agreed to form a special organization that would monitor and control the ceasefire, said the Russian ambassador Mikhail Zurabov. According to him, the agreements will be fulfilled on the permanent basis. The OSCE will ensure the general monitoring of the ceasefire in the Eastern part of Ukraine, the truce itself will be controlled by the belligerent parties, said “Reuters”.
According to Zubarov, the parties will sign the memorandum soon. There are 2 versions of the memorandum so far. The group of experts will work out the united document that will become the basis for further negotiations.
The parties exchanged the lists of captives. According to Mikhail Zurabov, it counts around 1 000 people from each side.
The first humanitarian aid should be delivered to the Donbass region this weekend under the aegis of the Red Cross. Then the parties will discuss the ways of creating the “humanitarian corridors”, declares Itar-Tass.
The status of the self-proclaimed republics has not been raised up yet. The delegates from the Donetsk and Lugansk republics declared that the singing of the protocol does not imply their desire to be in Ukraine.
“We still want the detachment, ceasefire is a compulsory measure” – quoted by RIA news.
The prime minister of Donetsk republic, Alexander Zakharchenko, said the most important thing is to stop the bloodshed, the political status of the republics will be discussed later.
Although, the experts predict that the conflict will continue. According to the Russian political scientist Andrey Suzdaltsev “the truce is a tactical move. Russia is interested to freeze the conflict, Ukraine is interested to get their captives back”. He thinks Ukraine will never acknowledge the independence of the self-proclaimed republics. The truce will work, until Ukraine gets new defense technology and military equipment from the West.
The Ukrainian political scientist Vladimir Fesenko also thinks that the truce is temporary. Ukraine does not acknowledge the delegates from the self-proclaimed republics to be the parties of these negotiations. The Ukraine agreed to the truce to avoid the “big war” with Russia.
If the ceasefire will work, the European sanctions against Russia can be canceled, said Angela Merkel. She declared that the Russian troops should be withdrawn, the buffer zone should be created.
The progress in ceasefire was achieved due to the plan that was worked out by Vladimir Putin. The plan contained 7 points: the ceasefire by citizen soldiers, the withdrawal of Ukrainian national troops from population aggregates, international control in the war zone, the prohibition to use airforce, the exchange of captives, the creation of humanitarian corridors and the reconstruction of the infrastructure in the ruined towns and villages.
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