Poroshenko wants Russian forces withdrawal to September conflict line

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko sent a letter dated Jan. 25 to Russian President Vladimir Putin requesting that he withdraw Russian-aligned forces to the conflict line established by the September Minsk ceasefire accords, the zn.ua news site reported on Jan. 28. The letter was in response to Putin’s letter to Poroshenko, dated Jan. 15, that proposed the removal of heavy hardware from the “practical conflict line” of January, which presumes the occupied territory to be larger by an estimated 550 square kilometers and further west than the line established in September.

Zenon Zawada: In his letter, Poroshenko has proposed something that the Russian government will never concede to, which is surrendering territory over which its forces have control over. It’s part of a strategy to force the Russians to adhere to the Minsk accords, which is utterly ineffective and unlikely to be fulfilled. Yet the letter also serves to distract attention from a recent controversy surrounding the Donetsk airport.

The zn.ua news site published on Jan. 24 a map in an alleged, previously undisclosed appendix to the Minsk accords that allegedly reveals the president surrendered the territory of the Donetsk airport to the Russians. The next day, the president told a meeting of the National Security and Defense Council that the airport territory was supposed to become a demilitarized zone, according to the September accords.

The Donetsk airport controversy has become a problem for Poroshenko, particularly if the new information confirms that Ukrainian soldiers were dispatched to territory that had already been conceded. He wants the conflict line to be the center of public discussion about Donbas instead. What the whole affair reveals is government’s shortcomings in the military sphere, as well as in diplomacy and public information.