Ukraine ends ceasefire, renews anti-terrorist offensive in Donbas

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko announced on the early morning of July 1 the conclusion of the ceasefire as of June 30 22:00 and renewal of the government’s anti-terrorist operation. In a video-recorded speech, Poroshenko acknowledged the pro-Russian terrorists rejected his peace plan and failed to uphold the ceasefire, violating it more than a hundred times. “The decision of the Federations Council to cancel the decision to dispatch Russian armies into Ukraine had a positive, but symbolic meaning,” Poroshenko said. “We have yet to see steps to de-escalate the situation, including strengthening border control. Despite all this, peace was, remains and will be my goal. Merely the instruments of achieving it have changed.”

The National Security and Defense Council met the night of June 30 and determined the need for offensive action and concluding the ceasefire. “We will attack and free our land,” the president said, stating that orders were given to Ukraine’s Armed Forces, National Guard, Security Service and State Border Service.

Poroshenko’s statement made no mention of imposing martial law, which is being urged by a segment of the Ukrainian population, including nationalist forces. “Our peace plan, as a strategy for Ukraine and Donbas, remains in place,” he said. “And disarmament, and decentralization and the free use of the Russian language. And renewing lost residences at the expense of the state. And a common program with the EU to create new jobs.” He said the ceasefire could return when fighters choose to disarm, release hostages and fighters and arms stop flowing through the Russian border.

Poroshenko announced staffing changes in the defense sector during a June 30 meeting with MPs, reported MP Anatoliy Grytsenko on his Facebook page. The president will replace the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff and submit a new defense minister nomination in parliament, as well as a nomination for a vice prime minister who will coordinate law enforcement and defense, particularly its technical and logistical supply.

The forces of the anti-terrorist operation began to inflict aviation and artillery strikes against resistance points and groupings of terrorists the night of June 30, reported Dmytro Tymchuk of the Information Resistance news site “Since the activization of the anti-terrorist operation after a ten-day pause, which allowed the fighters to act practically unpunished, their fighting spirit significantly decreased,” Tymchuk reported.

The ten-day ceasefire regime was not supported by many groups of separatists, as evident from the statistics provided by the Information Resistance: 27 citizens were killed by terrorists and 69 wounded.

The Ukrainian government is ready to begin political negotiations to fulfill the main points of its peace plan to settle the conflict in Donbas without any additional conditions, President Petro Poroshenko said in a phone call with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Francoise Hollande and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, the Presidential Administration reported on the early morning of July 1. The conditions for negotiation are a bilateral ceasefire, introducing reliable controls on the Russian-Ukrainian border under OSCE monitoring and the release of all hostages.

The Russian government hasn’t taken enough steps to de-escalate the conflict in eastern Ukraine, said on June 30 U.S. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki, as reported by the Interfax-Ukrayina news agency. Moscow took a series of “positive measures” aimed at stabilizing the situation in Ukraine, though they weren’t enough to settle the Ukrainian crisis. Reports are still surfacing on the presence of Russian fighters in eastern Ukraine, that separatists are attacking Ukrainian positions, Russian soldiers are still located on the Ukrainian border and armed fighters are threatening the civilian population, she said. The U.S. is ready to apply additional sanctions against Russia in the future, Psaki said. Meanwhile, the U.S. is ready to support any decisions reached by the Ukrainian government in its renewal of the anti-terrorist operation, she said.

Zenon Zawada: Poroshenko decided on June 27 to extend the government’s anti-terrorist operation for three days, which disappointed many among the Ukrainian public. It’s widely believed the deadline was extended to enable Western leaders to reach a behind-the-scenes agreement with their Russian counterparts to avoid warfare. Yet whatever talks that occurred have not succeeded. It’s clear the Russian government won’t stop at any solution short of federalization and we expect it will continue to fuel the separatist fighting in the Donbas region.

The Ukrainian public will be expecting a swift and strong military operation in July. Anything short of eliminating the separatist threat will be seen as a failure by the public, which has grown impatient with the government’s handling of the Russian invasion of Donbas. If the Ukrainian government fails to eliminate the separatist threat in Donbas by the summer’s end, it has the potential to spread to neighboring regions.