Armed fighting in Donbas intensifies during the weekend

Armed fighting was intense at the Donetsk Airport for the last four days, which is currently the frontline between pro-Russian separatist and Ukrainian forces. Hundreds of shootings and attacks were initiated by the separatist fighters on the airport, as reported by the Ukrainian government’s anti-terrorist operation (ATO) press center. The separatist fighters have been shooting at the Donetsk airport from nearby residences and the outskirts of Donetsk, placing the civilian population under threat, reported the OSCE special monitoring mission on Jan. 15. That morning, Aleksandr Zakarchenko, the leader of self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, announced his expectation that the airport would fall under the control of his fighters within 30 minutes, a plan that failed to materialize.

Throughout the weekend, pro-Russian separatists shot up residential areas in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, killing and wounding more than a dozen civilians, the ATO press center reported. The separatists have also reportedly forced local residents out of their homes in at least one village. During the weekend, at least 13 Ukrainians soldiers were killed and 68 wounded, according to the ATO press center. By Sunday evening, 60 Ukrainian fighters were being treated at Dnipropetrovsk hospitals, reported a local official. Numerous terrorist acts were carried out throughout Ukraine this weekend. A fire erupted at a fuel storage station in the Kharkiv region on Jan. 16 after a tank was shot at by saboteurs. An explosion was set off after business hours at a bank in Odesa on Jan. 16, inflicting no injuries. In a town outside of Kyiv, police found an explosive device at a gasoline station and neutralized it, as reported by the Interior Ministry on Jan. 16.

The EU Foreign Ministers Council will discuss the war in Ukraine’s Donbas region at its meeting today in Brussels, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini told reporters this morning, as reported by the Ekonomichna Pravda news site. New sanctions against the Russian government won’t be considered, which can only be implemented at an EU summit. Instead, they will consider more effective measures other than sanctions, she said. OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Ivica Dacic strongly condemned the use of force in a Jan. 19 statement, following what he characterized as “the severe and increased deterioriation of the situation over recent days in east Ukraine, particularly in and around Donetsk Airport.” He urged all sides to use maximum restraint and work towards achieving a sustainable ceasefire. “This cycle of deadly violence and further escalation of hostilities cannot continue,” he said in the statement. “All sides should refrain from belligerence, intimidation and provocative actions.”

Ukraine’s Foreign Affairs Ministry announced on Jan. 18 that it has proposed to its Russian counterparts reimplementing the Minsk September ceasefire accords as of Jan. 19, based on a new schedule. The agreement entails an immediate bilateral ceasefire, removal of heavy artillery and returning to established boundaries, as proposed in the Nov. 13 edition. The first steps in fulfilling the agreement will create the necessary preconditions for holding consultations with the trilateral contact group; meetings involving French, German, Russian and Ukrainian diplomats; and holding a summit of the heads of these states in Astana in the future, the statement said.

The Normandy format talks involving the heads of foreign ministries planned for Jan. 21 could be canceled, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin told the Kyiv Post in an interview published on Jan. 19. The weekend’s intensified fighting in the Donetsk Airport was intended by the Russian government to pressure Western leaders “to definitely disrupt” the Minsk ceasefire accords, Klimkin said, and to renegotiate the blueprint for ending the war.

Zenon Zawada: We agree with Klimkin’s view that the Russian government played a role in igniting the intensified fighting of the last four days. In our view, it’s quite surprising that it would take this route and reflects just how reckless the Russian leadership is behaving in this conflict, not only in inflicting damage in Ukraine but hurting its own standing both domestically and internationally. It’s expecting that the intensified attacks will improve its leveraging position at the next round of talks, but we expect merely more non-military measures in response, which we are confident are currently being examined by Western leaders.