Fighting slackens in eastern Ukraine
Analysts caution that calm could be ‘head fake’ or short-lived
A long-sought cease-fire appears to be holding in eastern Ukraine, raising hopes that a truce negotiated in February may finally bring peace between Ukrainian national forces and Russianbacked separatists.
No Ukrainian troops have died in combat this week, the Ukrainian military said, and fighting has fallen to the lowest levels in more than a year, according to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
Ukrainian government and separatist forces maintain large forces close to each other, but the calm “is quite unprecedented,” Michael Bociurkiw, an OSCE spokesman in Kiev, told USA TODAY. “Since the signing of the first Minsk accord (cease-fire) in September of last year, I can’t recall a period like this.”
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said after meeting in Moscow with his French, Russian and Ukrainian counterparts Saturday that the ministers agreed to start removing land mines, according to the Associated Press.
Fighting broke out in April 2014 after Russia seized Ukraine’s Crimea province and annexed it. Since then, about 8,000 people have died in the fighting, according to the United Nations.
Russia has denied sending weapons or troops into eastern Ukraine, although journalists and officials from the U.S. State De- partment, NATO and European nations have documented Russian support to the separatists and participation in the fighting.
John Herbst, a former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, said there’s no sign that Russian President Vladimir Putin has begun to implement the terms of the ceasefire. “There’s been no movement of Russian equipment or soldiers out of Ukraine, so he could raise the temperature back up very quickly,” Herbst said.
The Ukrainian government sought to ease tensions in August, when its parliament approved a draft constitutional amendment to grant greater autonomy to regions held by separatists.
Separatists plan to hold municipal elections Oct. 18.