Following his visits to Russia and Ukraine, French President Emmanuel Macron claimed that he had made progress in resolving the current Ukraine crisis. He said that after talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, Putin promised him that tensions would not be escalated. However, according to some US and European experts, the consensus on which Macron is relying is ambiguous. He has stated that Macron is working to put the ceasefire agreement signed between Russia and Ukraine seven years ago into effect. While that agreement has been ineffective so far.
The Mins Agreement is the name given to the 2014 agreement. The agreement was signed in Belarus’s capital. Russia, Ukraine, France, Germany, and the United States all backed it. Following that, in 2015, a new agreement was signed in Minsk. Both agreements established a cease-fire between the Ukrainian government and separatists in Ukraine’s Russian-controlled Donbass region. The Ukrainian government then agreed to grant the two separatist-controlled areas special status. Russia, on the other hand, had promised to pull its army back from Ukraine’s border.
There are numerous flaws in the agreements.
The biggest flaw in the Minsk agreement, according to critics, was that it did not specify who would take the first step. For this further talks were to be held. The ceasefire, however, did not last. Russia, on the other hand, has re-positioned its army along the Ukrainian border. The US delegation sent Special Representative Kurt Volker to the Minsk talks. Now, he’s told Axios.com in the United States that the Minsk agreements were riddled with flaws.
In an interview with Axios.com, a source close to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky claimed that Ukraine was committed to implementing the Minsk Agreement. Russia, on the other hand, is not following through. “The worst part is that Russia is attempting to create instability in Ukraine,” the source said, while Russia claims Ukraine has failed to honor its promise to give the Donbass region special status. Instead, it has maintained military action against the country’s dissident groups.
Passports were issued to Donbass residents.
According to Western analysts, Ukraine’s political landscape has completely changed in the last seven years. Meanwhile, more than 50,000 people in the Donbass region have received Russian passports. The goal is to strengthen the company’s position in that area.
Olga Takuriuk, a Fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis in Kiev, Ukraine’s capital, believes the Minsk Agreement has failed. He has stated that peace can only be achieved if Russia makes the decision to do so. Kurt Volker has also stated that Ukraine cannot implement the Minsk Agreement unilaterally. It’s not fair to put pressure on him because of this. Whereas it is widely assumed that President Macron is attempting to solve the problem by using the Minsk Agreement as a starting point.