Seven agreed-upon demands were released on November 3 after a meeting of the Trilateral Contact Group in Minsk. They concern accelerating the process of removal of small caliber military equipment by both parties to the conflict, as well as consideration of a draft electoral law for the occupied territories. These demands were formulated with the participation of the bandits’ representatives. In turn, representatives of the so-called Luhansk People’s Republic asked a foreign party to help the militants to restore the water supply in the occupied territory. Let us recall that they still refuse access to the Ukrainian-Russian border for the OSCE observer mission, which is a clear violation of the peaceful conflict resolution terms and significantly complicates the process of organizing mine clearance along the border.
Unfortunately, the ceasefire was broken on November 3, as the militants provocatively fired, using RPGs among other weapons, upon the Ukrainian positions, in particular in the village of Triokhizbenka, Luhansk region. These attacks wounded three soldiers, one of them commander of the 92nd Mechanized Brigade Viktor Nikoliuk, callsign Viter.
Do we really have a truce in the Donbas, and what are the prospects of the Minsk Accords? In order to get first-hand information about the events, The Day invited to its office one of the main negotiators from the Ukrainian side in Minsk, who already managed to dramatically reduce attacks in the conflict zone. So, this newspaper received recently the head of the Trilateral Contact Group’s security subgroup Yevhen Marchuk, who spoke about the specifics of his subgroup’s work to achieve a ceasefire. Indeed, we have seen relative calm at the front for several months already, compared to heavy fighting that took place until this fall.
“From the beginning, I argued that the Minsk Accords were not the best option,” Marchuk said. “It was when these agreements were just being prepared. I was offered to join the negotiations as a member of a working subgroup rather than the Trilateral Contact Group itself. I agreed only because I wanted to facilitate the cessation of hostilities. I did not imagine then that mine clearance would be no less important than fighting. As a human being and citizen, I find internal justification for my efforts in the fact that these six months have seen substantial results achieved on the ceasefire, including a reduction of heavy shelling. Of course, I would not call it a truce in any sense, but we do have a period of calm, even if a fragile one. I think that it makes my participation in this effort worthwhile. It is clear that until these issues are resolved in general, including in the political dimension, the resolution of problems in security sphere is like walking on thin ice. I believe that the need for and the nature of the Minsk talks are insufficiently covered in the media. One can have a separate discussion whether it was the most effective way initially. However, it is reality in the here and now, and there is no other format.”
