Ministers propose to bolster OSCE mission in Ukraine at Paris meeting
The foreign ministers of Ukraine,
Russia, Germany, and France
have proposed extending the mandate of the Organization for Security and
Cooperation in Europe to monitor the implementation of the Minsk
peace agreements in eastern Ukraine,
including a fragile ceasefire that has seen repeated violations since it came
into force.
Concluding a meeting of the four ministers in Paris on Feb. 24, French
Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius announced that the representatives “had
called on OSCE observers to bolster their special mission and increase their
mandate.”
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The ministers also called on all sides to cooperate
with the mission and guarantee observers access to the conflict zones.
The current ceasefire was agreed upon on Feb. 12 following
marathon negotiations between the Ukrainian, Russian, German, and French
leaders in the Belarusian capital.
The truce came into effect on Feb. 15 but
fighting continued around the strategic railway town of Debaltsevo, where a large group of Ukrainian
troops was encircled by rebel forces.
The confrontation ended on Feb. 18 with the
withdrawal of Ukrainian units from the Debaltsevo pocket, after which the
rebels established full control over the area.
Heavy weaponry
According to Mikhail Alexandrov, a leading expert
from the MGIMO university’s Center of Military-Political Studies, although the agenda in Paris was primarily concerned
with technical issues, an important objective was nevertheless reached: The
participants of the meeting declared it necessary to begin withdrawing heavy
weaponry, regardless of continued military activity in some sectors.
“The Ukrainian side constantly implied that
its positions were being shelled by the rebels, which is why it was
not hurrying to withdraw its heavy weaponry,” said Alexandrov. “Now
it has been decided to withdraw the heavy weaponry even though there are still
some sporadic skirmishes. The Ukrainian side should have no reasons to impede
the implementation of this point of the Minsk Agreements.”
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On the morning of Feb. 24, Anatoly Stelmach,
representative of the Ukrainian forces fighting in the country’s east,
announced that since the rebels were continuing to fire, there was no talk of
withdrawing heavy weaponry.
Interfax-Ukraine cites Stelmach as saying that in
order for this to happen, it is first necessary to reach “a complete
ceasefire, at least for a day.” Later it was said that Ukrainian forces
would begin withdrawing their weapons only after two days of a genuine ceasefire.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov announced
after the meeting that his colleagues, “first of all from Germany and France,” had backed his call
to urgently withdraw heavy weaponry, without waiting for a full
ceasefire.”
Representatives of the self-proclaimed Donetsk
People’s Republic announced that on Feb. 24 they already started withdrawing
weaponry, under the observation of the Organization for Security and
Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).
Ukrainian forces are accusing the rebels of not
withdrawing their weaponry but simply moving it to other locations and
regrouping. However, according to Andrei Suzdaltsev, deputy dean of the World
Economy and Policy Department at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow, the rebels are
showing a real desire to withdraw their heavy weaponry from the conflict zone.
No mention of peacekeepers
Experts give importance not only to what was said
during the meeting in Paris but also to what the
participants did not mention: the possible deployment of EU peacekeepers in the
conflict zone, as Ukraine
had earlier proposed. On the eve of the meeting, Ukrainian Foreign Minister
Pavel Klimkin announced that this issue would be discussed in Paris.
In Alexandrov’s view, the meeting proved that for
now the sides are demonstrating their interest in implementing the Minsk
Agreements, which make no mention of a peacekeeping contingent. According to
Alexandrov, Kyiv would like to use the idea of
peacekeepers as a means of pressuring Moscow
and the rebels.
Another positive aspect of the meeting, according
to observers, is that the situation in Debaltsevo did not influence the West to
discontinue the Minsk
process. However, Suzdaltsev says that Moscow
was subjected to “heavy criticism” from Berlin
and Paris over the
confrontation in Debaltsevo, where fighting had continued until recently.