A Russian government spokesperson has said that there will be a truce in the Donbas over the Christmas period, but the two sides in the ongoing conflict aren’t so sure.
Meeting in Minsk on Dec. 15, the Contact Group on the Ukraine conflict agreed on a ceasefire for the period for the New Year and Christmas holidays, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova told Russian news agency RIA Novosti on Dec. 16.
According to Zakharova, the Trilateral Contact group discussed “political, security, and humanitarian questions.”
“The contact group agreed on mine clearing in the war zone. A complete ceasefire regime for the period of the New Year and Christmas holidays was also agreed during the meeting,” Zakharova told RIA Novosti.
Zakharova also said another Trilateral Contact meeting would take place in Minsk before the end of the year.
However, Darka Olifer, the spokesperson of second Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma, a senior representative of Ukraine Trilateral Contact group, couldn’t confirm Zakharova’s claims to the Kyiv Post.
“All I can say is that Ukrainian side of the Minsk agreements always stands for peace,” Olifer told the Kyiv Post. She said official comments should be sought from the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, but the ministry, when contacted, referred the Kyiv Post back to Olifer. She again said she couldn’t confirm Zakharova’s claims.
And the Russian-backed armed groups in Luhansk and Donetsk Oblasts, far from expecting the guns to fall silent over the holidays, say they think Ukraine is preparing to attack them.
In comments to separatist website dnr-news on Dec. 16, Eduard Basurin, a senior leader of the armed groups that have seized control in part of Ukraine’s Donetsk Oblast, said that “there is a possibility that the Ukrainian army will attack before the New Year.”
“They have started to prepare for the upcoming attack openly,” Basurin said.
The Russian-backed armed groups that have seized control of part of Ukraine’s Luhansk Oblast also say they are concerned about an upcoming attack. “The Ukrainian army has started to concentrate weapons near the front line,” a spokesperson for the Luhansk armed groups, Igor Shevchenko, told dnr-news on Dec. 12.
A ceasefire regime was supposed to have come into effect from Feb. 15, 2015, according to the Minsk peace agreements signed on Feb. 12. However, that ceasefire broke down within less than an hour, and the Russian proxy forces, according to numerous reports aided by Russian regular troops, attacked and seized control of the town of Debaltseve north of the city of Donetsk on Feb. 18.
After a summer of near-continuous low-level fighting in the Donbas, another ceasefire came into force on Sept. 1. However, after a brief lull in the fighting, the Ukrainian military started to report increasing numbers of attacks on its positions, to the levels seen in the summer.
Kyiv Post staff writer Veronika Melkozerova can be reached at [email protected]
