Providing further details on yesterday’s announcement of further weapon pullbacks by both government and rebel forces in Eastern Ukraine’s tenuous ceasefire, officials today announced the establishment of the 30 km demilitarized zone between the two factions in Luhansk Province.
The new demilitarized zone was agreed to by both sides at the behest of European monitoring group OSCE, and Russian officials. The Ukrainian government said it would prevent the rebels from attacking “peaceful civilians” on their side of the buffer.
The Ukrainian civil war has been in a state of ceasefire since February, though intermittent violations by both sides have continued to occur, and each side insists the other has been the exclusive instigator of such incidents. A 30 km buffer should keep the two sides farther apart than has previously been the case.
EU officials praised the announcement and expressed hope it would lead toward a “more resilient and sustainable ceasefire.” It remains unclear how much of the frontier between the two sides this zone actually covers, however.
“violations by both sides have continued to occur”
The Ukraine fascist coup has sent an invasion force into the East Ukraine Republic, the force being comprised mostly of right-wing fascist volunteers who would love to plunder war materials and anything of value. So, surely the new Republic is acting purely in self-defense.
Right, the buffer zone is to prevent the rebels from attacking the "peaceful civilians" in Ukraine.
Hogwash.
Two possibilities. The most likely: this is yet another scam which Putin's mercenaries will not comply with. Second choice: the mercenaries are admitting defeat and this is just the first step in that direction. As long as the Ukrainian army holds its present position, Putin is defeated and the stalemate must be costing a him fortune. There has always been a deal on the table: Putin abandons Donetsk and Lugnask and gets to keep Crimea. An article on another site a few days ago claimed that the US is negotiating secretly with the banned oligarchs, the deal essentailly being that sanctions will be lifted if Putin is ditched. Putin goes (no doubt in return for a lot of money), Medvedev takes over, the above deal is agreed to and we all live happily ever after. Well, except maybe for the neocons, who would then have suffered three defeats: Greece, Iran and Russia.
How can the Ukrainian army hold its current position in a "demilitarized zone"? For the shooting to stop, the two sides need not to see each other.
A war situation adds nothing positive to the outcome for Ukraine. It needs to be stopped.