Zelensky conducts talks with Putin after four soldiers killed

The morning four Ukrainian soldiers were shot and
killed in the war-torn Donbas region, Ukrainian President Zelensky placed a telephone
call to Russian President Putin to request that he use his influence to stop
the aggression. “I urgently called him and said this doesn’t bring us closer to
peace,” Zelensky told an Aug. 7 press briefing about his call that morning. He
said he told Putin, “I plead with you very much to influence that side so that
they stop the murder of our people.” The four soldiers were in a trench setting
up engineering equipment when they were struck and killed by a grenade, the
General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine confirmed on Aug. 7. Zelensky also
discussed the current efforts to remove mines and rebuild the bridge in the
town of Stanytsia Luhanska, as well as efforts to return war prisoners.
Zelensky said he also told Putin there is no need to amend the Ukrainian
Constitution to fulfill the Minsk Accords.

From its end, the Russian Presidential
Administration’s press service reported the two leaders discussed the
importance of upholding the “harvest ceasefire” launched on July 21, as well as
the withdrawal of arms and soldiers from the vicinity of the Donbas demarcation
line. In particular, Putin stressed the need for Ukrainian forces to cease
their shooting of population centers in Donbas, which leads to civilian deaths,
the statement said. “Also confirmed was the exceptional importance of the
consistent fulfillment of the Minsk Accords, including the legal aspects of
granting the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics special status. In this
context, the need for constructive dialogue between the sides was stressed,
including within the framework of the Minsk Trilateral Contact Group.” They
also discussed the prospects for cooperation in the Normandy Four format
(including German Chancellor Merkel and French President Macron).

Zenon Zawada: The Minsk
Two Accords clearly call for “constitutional reforms” to implement a “new
Constitution.” When agreeing to these terms, we believe former President Petro
Poroshenko knew well that a major segment of the Ukrainian public would be
violently opposed to amending the Constitution to create more autonomous
republics within Ukraine (besides Crimea), which would advance Russia’s
geopolitical goal of promoting federalization and serve the ultimate purpose of
partitioning, weakening and perhaps even dissolving Ukrainian statehood. Yet it
has long been our position that Poroshenko had never intended for the Minsk
Accords to be fulfilled.

For at least the next year, Zelensky is committed
to close cooperation with the West and extending the military resistance in
Donbas against Russian aggression. So we don’t expect the Minsk Accords to be
fulfilled anytime soon. And if Zelensky ever decides to do so, it will be
viewed as capitulation by a major segment of the public, which will be
violently opposed. Yet there is no other political mechanism available to
halting the warfare in Donbas (a fact that Putin is well aware of), which means
that Zelensky will disappoint a major segment of his electorate that wants an
end to the armed fighting.