Donbas negotiators agree to remove soldiers from four territories, demine 20

Negotiators at the Trilateral Contact Group reached an
agreement on Aug. 19 to withdraw soldiers from four territories and demine 20
territories in the Donbas war zone, the President’s Office of Ukraine reported
on its website. The four territories were not identified in the announcement.
The agreement fulfills a plan reached at the Normandy Format summit in Paris in
early December and draws the sides closer to holding another Normandy Format
summit in Berlin, the statement said. The Ukrainian side also supported the
need to develop a framework for demining activity within the group.

The latest Trilateral talks lasted for two days during
a videoconference in which Donbas representatives repeatedly demanded canceling
a parliamentary resolution that they view to be in violation of the Minsk
Accords. Their aim was to disrupt a meeting of Normandy Format foreign policy
advisers, said Serhiy Harmash, a Donbas journalist and member of the Ukrainian
delegation. In his diplomatic debut, Ukrainian delegation head Leonid Kravchuk
agreed to ask parliament to review the resolution if the Donbas negotiators
agreed to unblock the talks.

“Nothing concrete, but now it will be difficult for
the Russians to disrupt the meeting of Normandy Format advisers, which (Dmitry)
Kozak doesn’t want to attend after that famous
letter in which he stated he will no longer participate ‘in
this.’ At least, the West understands that this certainly isn’t to Russia’s
benefit. On the whole, Kravchuk’s debut in the delegation was very successful,”
Harmash wrote on his Facebook page.

Russian-backed forces in Donbas fired upon Ukrainian
forces once on Aug. 19 in what was described as a provocation by the Joint
Forces Operation press service. “The shots were not targeted so Ukrainian
soldiers didn’t fire in return and didn’t fall for the enemy’s provocation,”
the statement said. No shots were fired on Aug. 18 on the Donbas warfront, the
press service reported the next morning.

Zenon Zawada: The Zelensky
administration has made it a central part of its foreign policy to engage in
prisoner exchanges with Russia, as well as forces withdrawals and demining of
territory in occupied Donbas. These small steps earn the support of its
electorate, which is satisfied with any progress made in resolving the war.
They also create a positive daily news flow for not only the president, but The
People’s Servant party (particularly ahead of the October local elections).

So far, the ceasefire launched on July 27 is going
surprisingly well, with very few violations. It is probably the most successful
ceasefire in six years of warfare, which some attribute to the newly
implemented coordinating mechanisms. Yet skeptics believe the Russians are
using this moment to move more military hardware and personnel into Donbas,
reorganize their forces and adopt new strategies.

We maintain our position that the Donbas warfront is a
key instrument in Russia’s hybrid war against Ukraine in achieving its ultimate
goal of forcing a capitulation. This ceasefire undermines its strategic goals
in Ukraine and we expect Russia will eventually create the pretext for
disrupting the ceasefire in the coming months.