Ukraine Govt, Separatists Withdraw From Disputed Village

Latest pullback is the last expected before

The Ukrainian government and the separatist eastern rebels began the pullback from the disputed village of Petrivske. Fighters started pulling back on Saturday, and it’s not clear how long that will take.

Once this pullback is finished, all preconditions will be filled for a plan negotiated between Russia, France, and Germany for a peace summit inside the Ukraine meant to resolve years of unrest.

There have been several efforts to cobble together a deal wherein the Ukraine rebellion would end. This has tended to rest on the government both backing off punitive laws against ethnic Russian minorities, and allowing local elections with some degree of autonomy.

Though this has been proposed in the past, it’s failed as the government has been slow to repeal anti-Russian laws, and has resisted the idea of any free elections being held in eastern Ukraine without the rebels first surrendering and being arrested and prohibited from running.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.