"We agreed to pursue ambitious measures to reduce Russia's ability to wage war by limiting Kremlin revenues, disrupting the shadow fleet, tightening the Oil Price Cap, and reducing our remaining imports of Russian energy."
Zelensky on May 12 removed Lieutenant General Ivan Havryliuk from the Headquarters of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, the top command and control body for all branches of Ukraine's defense apparatus.
Ukraine remains the most mined country in the world. Nearly one-third of Ukraine's territory, approximately 174,000 square kilometers, had been mined since Russia began its full-scale invasion of the country in February 2022.
The phone call comes as Moscow once again rejected a 30-day ceasefire, with Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Maria Zakharova claiming that a ceasefire would give "Kyiv a break to restore its military potential and continue its confrontation with Russia."
Flight MH17 departed from Amsterdam Schiphol Airport en-route to Kuala Lumpur International Airport on July 17, 2014. Three hours into the flight, the Boeing-777 was shot down by Russian proxy forces using a Buk surface-to-air missile above Ukraine’s Donetsk Oblast.
"I am grateful for the support and the readiness at the highest level to promote diplomacy," President Volodymyr Zelensky said of the phone conservation with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. "We share the same view on the need for a ceasefire."
The convictions mark a significant development in Britain's efforts to counter Russian intelligence operations amid heightened tensions stemming from Moscow's war against Ukraine and repeated Kremlin threats toward Kyiv's allies.
According to the Verkhovna Rada's website, Ukraine completed the ratification of the U.S.-Ukraine minerals agreement on May 12. President Volodymyr Zelensky signed the deal.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz (L) and French President Emmanuel Macron hold a joint press conference on Feb. 8, 2022 in Berlin. (AFP via Getty Images)
The leaders of France and Germany tried to push Ukraine to comply with the Russian spin of the Minsk Agreements during their recent visits to Kyiv, sources in the Ukrainian government and foreign emissaries told the Kyiv Independent.
The diplomatic efforts to resolve the ongoing security crisis came as Russia massed 140,000 troops near Ukraine and in the Russian-occupied territories.
On Feb. 8, French President Emmanuel Macron tried to persuade President Volodymyr Zelensky to hold direct talks with Russian-controlled militants, an idea that would effectively echo the Russian-promoted fake narrative of a “civil war” in Ukraine.
Macron asked Zelensky to conduct direct talks with the militants, to which Zelensky said no.
Macron discussed the idea of holding direct talks with Russian proxies in the region with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Feb. 7.
When talking about his meeting with Macron, Putin said that the talks were useful and that some of Macron's ideas were "realistic" and could form a basis for further joint steps.
A day later, Macron brought up this proposal in his talk with Zelensky in Kyiv, according to two sources.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who traveled to Kyiv on Feb. 14, tried to talk Zelensky into granting Russian-occupied regions autonomy, which is one of the key demands made by the Kremlin.
On Feb. 15, Russia’s parliament voted to ask Putin to recognize Russian-occupied territories in Ukraine’s Donbas as independent states. If Putin signs the bill, this will effectively cancel the Minsk Agreements, which, according to Ukrainian officials, isn’t what Russia desires.
The day before, Scholz said that Zelensky agreed to present a plan to introduce “special status” for occupied Donbas. Zelensky didn’t comment publicly on the issue.
During his visit to Moscow on Feb. 15, Scholtz called recognizing the independence of Russian-occupied regions a “political catastrophe.”
Why Minsk Agreements?
The demand for the autonomy of Donbas comes from the peace agreement signed in Minsk in February 2015 following the Battle of Debaltseve, which was devastating for Ukraine.
Back then, Ukraine, Russia, the OSCE, and the Russian-led Donbas militants, signed what is now known as the second Minsk Accords, formally aimed at stopping the war in eastern Ukraine.
Before being signed, the Minsk Agreements have been approved by the leaders of the Normandy Format countries – a group created to bring peace to Donbas that includes Ukraine, France, Germany, and Russia.
Since the documents were signed as a result of major Ukrainian military defeats due to Russia’s military involvement, many provisions demanded significant concessions from Ukraine.
In particular, the Minsk Accords stated that Ukraine must pass a bill granting “special status” to the Russian-occupied parts of Donbas. This legal framework stipulates very broad autonomy, potentially even semi-independence, for the region.
This special status would provide the Russian-occupied territories with a full amnesty for all combatants, the right to appoint their own prosecutors and judges and to develop their own political and economic ties with Russia.
Knowing that the militants are fully controlled by Russia, Ukraine demanded that local Donbas elections be held in compliance with Ukrainian legislation, under OSCE standards and supervision, and only after all militant forces and paramilitaries are withdrawn and disbanded, and the eastern border is back under Ukrainian control.
Russia did not rush to withdraw its formations and hardware from Donbas. The Kremlin demands the “special status” and elections before withdrawing from the region, meaning that it could influence the elections.
Ukraine’s parliament had passed a law on special status for the occupied territories back in 2015. The law is also designed to grant some autonomy to the region, but only after Ukraine re-establishes control over the Russian-occupied territories. Ukraine has prolonged the law every year since then.
The leaders of the Normandy Format countries have not met since December 2019. Both peace negotiation formats – the Normandy Format and the Minsk Trilateral Group – are stalling.
The last two meetings of representatives of Ukraine, Russia, France, and Germany on Jan. 26 in Paris and Feb. 11 in Berlin brought no result.
Russia’s representative Dmitry Kozak said after the January meeting that “all agreed that as long as there are differences in the interpretation of the Minsk Agreements… the Normandy format is unlikely to play any significant role in resolving the conflict.”
Oleksiy Sorokin is the co-founder and deputy chief editor at the Kyiv Independent. He is tasked with building the organization and leading the hiring, editing, and newsletter workstreams. Oleksiy is the author of the "WTF is wrong with Russia?" newsletter, sent out every Thursday. For his work, Oleksiy was included in the 2022 Forbes 30 Under 30 list. Oleksiy holds a BA from the University of Toronto.
