After months of on-again, off-again ceasefire, Ukraine resumed its civil war this week, attacking eastern rebels. Russia is leading the calls to get the ceasefire back in place, urging a cessation of hostilities and for everyone to withdraw their artillery from the front line. Ukraine has already agreed in general terms to some of it, but is continuing their offensive
The US, which has never been keen toward any of these international ceasefire plans in Ukraine, is once again outraged by the plan, calling it a “Russian occupation plan.”
The US complaints center around Russia not having a full rebel surrender as part of the peace plan, and similarly not promising to give Ukraine military control of the Crimean Peninsula back. Crimea seceded from Ukraine last year, and was annexed by the Russian Federation days later.
The initial Minsk ceasefire sought to bring the rebel east back under Ukrainian control, with promises of reforms. With the reforms not happening and the rebels refusing to disarm in the absence of that, the latest Russian ceasefire proposal isn’t nearly as ambitious as Minsk, and is focused instead on just stopping the war.
