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| Ukrainian President Petro Porosheno and US President Barak Obama (Image: Bloomberg) |
Despite the mutual agreements regarding the ceasefire and the regime of
halting the fire in Eastern Ukraine, the situation in the zone of an
anti-terrorist operation in Donetsk and Luhansk regions remains extremely
tense, with the massive troops of Russian forces remaining on the territory of
Ukraine, new Russian “humanitarian” convoy entering the city of Donetsk on
Saturday, 20 September, and shelling the cities in the war zone, including
Donetsk, Luhansk and Mariupol.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian Defense Ministry has announced recently that the
fourth wave of a partial mobilization could be expected in the nearest future
in case Russian aggression will not stop.
Amid the continuous fighting in Donbas region Ukraine has made several
important strategic and historical steps this week, including ratifying of an
Association Agreement with EU, which happened together with the same procedure
in European Parliament, voting for the long awaited lustration law and adoption
of the law regarding the special status of Donetsk and Luhansk regions,
introduced by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko. The later law appeared to
be a really controversial and disputed document, as the opinions of the
politicians, analysts, experts, military officials, civil workers and
activists, journalists and ordinary citizens are too different regarding this
issue. Some see this step as a sign of Ukrainian weakness and a personal
weakness of Mr. Poroshenko who is surrendering Ukraine to Russia and plays the
game of Putin, while the others claim this was an important step in order to
stop the bloodshed and to find another way to resolve the current crisis, as
the Donbas war costs too much for Ukraine. Anyway, despite the law regarding
the special status of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions the situation there
remains tense.
Another important development of this week was an official visit of
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko to Canada and to US. Canadian government
in its turn declared their total support of Ukraine and Ukrainian cause and
announced the new package of sanctions to be imposed on Russia over its
aggression in Ukraine. These sanctions include economic restrictions and
personal sanctions against the highest officials as well.
In US Mr. Poroshenko has met with the US President Barak Obama, with Joe
Biden and John Kerry and has held a speech in the US Congress as well, aiming
to deliver Ukrainian message to the US and the world and calling on US
government to support Ukraine and to help it in its fight with an aggressor.
Mr. Poroshenko also stressed the importance of a matter of an annexation of
Crimea by Russia happened in March and called on the international community to
never recognize this illegal and criminal act. In addition to that Ukrainian
President called on US to support Ukraine with the economic and military help,
which is really necessary for Ukraine at the current stage.
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| Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko delivering his speech in US Congress (Image: Kiev Ukraine Info) |
After the meeting of Petro Poroshenko and Barak Obama a joint statement
was issued and it stated that Ukraine will receive US help and assistance in
addition to the previously granted help, which will make $ 240 million of
financial aid and $ 1 billion of financial guarantees. The wide field of issues
of the cooperation between Ukraine and US were also discussed by the Presidents
during the meeting, including the issues of a financial, economic, security,
defense, military and energy cooperation.
As for the issue of energy and energy security, cooperation between the
two countries continues and Ukraine is expected to host a US expert team to
arrive in Ukraine in the nearest future in order to consult Ukrainian
colleagues in the matters of an energy security, stated Ukrainian President.
US will also grant financial aid for Ukraine for its economic and
defense purposes, added Ukrainian President. In addition to that US will send
its monitoring team to observe the upcoming parliamentary elections scheduled
for 26 October.
Mr. Poroshenko, who delivered an emotional speech in the Congress of US,
also called on US to continue pressuring Russia diplomatically and with the
sanctions as well.
US President Barak Obama in his turn declared that US will widen its
help to Ukraine in the sphere of economy and security issues to support
Ukraine. US will also join EU in the fight against Russian aggression and it
totally supports Ukrainian sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity.
Though Ukrainian request for a special status of a NATO partner was met
with a refusal of a US President, according to the statement of Mr. Poroshenko.
Mr. Obama declared that Ukraine has already a similar status in the framework
of its close and deep work and cooperation with US and NATO, and this
cooperation will widen in the future as well.
Meanwhile, the trilateral peace talks of Ukraine, Russia and pro-Russian
rebels, being held in the Belarusian capital Minsk and monitored and mediated
by the EU representatives and OSCE, ended with the issuing of a so called
Memorandum of Peace aimed to stop the fighting in the Eastern Ukraine and to
turn the process of resolving the crisis into the peaceful political and
diplomatic current.
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| Ukrainian soldiers in an anti-terrorist operation zone (Image: Independent) |
The meeting of a special contact group held on Saturday, 19 September,
has adopted the Memorandum with the mutual agreements regarding am immediate
halting of fire and a ceasefire. It’s worth mentioning though that the
previously announced long term ceasefire was also reached during the talks in
Minks and was declared on the 5th September, but then the ceasefire
was systematically violated by the Russian soldiers and pro-Russian terrorists
as well.
The current Memorandum of Peace was signed and welcomed by the
participants of the Minsk talks and consists of nine points. The key points of
this document are the following: total halt of violence, fighting and usage of
all the weapons in the war zone; all the hostilities to be halted on the
current positions (19 September); prohibitions of usage of all kinds of
weapons; establishing the no-flight zone for the military and civilian
airplanes; withdrawal of all the heavy military technique and withdrawal of the
foreign mercenaries and fighters from the territory of Ukraine and release of
the prisoners and hostages. In addition to that the Memorandum declares that the
special 30 km buffer zone in the conflict area must be set up, and all the
heavy weapons should be withdrawn from that area and from all the cities,
villages and residential areas as well. Special monitoring mission of the OSCE
members should be sent to the conflict area to monitor the situation.
Thus, the situation in the zone of an anti-terrorist operation remains
tense and dangerous, as the pro-Russian terrorists and Russian soldiers
continue to ignore and violate the ceasefire, though the recently declared
Memorandum of peace could possibly bring some positive changes.
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