No breakthrough in Donbas war will happen soon, Kuchma says

A series of difficulties remains in the talks to resolve the war in Donbas and a breakthrough won’t happen soon, former Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma, Ukraine’s representative in the Trilateral Contact Group to resolve the war in Donbas, told journalists on June 25. The Russian government wants Ukraine to assume control of the occupied Donbas region and bear the full burden of the damage done, he said. Meanwhile, it wants its border to be monitored by the separatist forces, who will convert its soldiers into law enforcement officers. The main goal at this point has to be a cease-fire, he said.

In his remarks, Kuchma complained the EU isn’t exerting enough pressure on the Russian government. EU leaders have expressed concern about the effect of trade sanctions on Russia, yet haven’t taken into account that Russia has applied trade sanctions against Ukraine for three years now. “Such a double strategy of Europe, particularly with this conflict, doesn’t offer assurance that this problem will be resolved,” he said. “So we should be oriented towards a long-term process.”

The cease-fire regime in Ukraine’s Donbas region is being violated by both sides of the armed conflict, though the separatists do it more often, said German Chancellor Angela Merkel on June 25 in Brussels. The information is based on what was observed by the OSCE monitors, she said.

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe approved a resolution on June 25 that recognized the war in Donbas as Russian aggression and the territory of Crimea as occupied by the Russian government.

Zenon Zawada: Kuchma’s comments are on target. We expect the Donbas conflict will drag on for years, in one form or another. The mere occurrence of the war on the occupied territory is too much of an effective tool – for pressuring Ukraine and the West – for the Russian government to let go of.

It’s not positive for the Ukrainian government to be accused of violating the cease-fire and the OSCE has been repeatedly accused by Ukrainian officials of unfairly assessing the situation, particularly with a good portion of the monitors being from Russia. The Ukrainian government continues to maintain that it’s upholding the cease-fire in its entirety, with soldiers often complaining of being at a disadvantage by not being able to engage in pre-emptive attacks or even return fire.