This past week, four Ukrainian soldiers were killed in Russia’s continuing war against Ukraine. According to Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense, pro-Russian militants opened fire at Ukrainian military positions on August 6, using grenade-launchers, machine guns and assault rifles. It was the highest daily death toll since President Volodymyr Zelenskyy took office, and it occurred three weeks after a ceasefire had been agreed upon.
Yes, that’s right. A ceasefire was supposed to be in effect.
According to an agreement reached in Minsk on July 17 by Ukrainian and Russian envoys as well as members of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (known as the Trilateral Contact Group), a “harvest ceasefire” in the Donbas was to go into effect on July 22. Unfortunately, there’s nothing new here. Ceasefires announced as part of the two major Minsk agreements of September 2014 and February 2015 – which were supposed to have brought peace to Ukraine – have failed. Twenty truces agreed upon since the beginning of the war have also been violated. What’s more, the so-called Normandy format talks on the Donbas – involving Ukraine, Russia, France and Germany – have not taken place since 2016.
Meanwhile, the death toll continues to rise. Over 13,000 have been killed in Ukraine’s east since 2014; each of these victims has a name and a grieving family, and a nation in mourning. The latest four were Marines Oleksandr Sharko (born 1988), Vladyslav Rak (1998), Serhiy Shandra (1995) and Vasyl Kurdov (1999).
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy reacted to the deaths of four more of his servicemen by describing the August 6 “incident” as an attempt to “undermine” Ukraine’s efforts toward peace, and by calling Russian President Vladimir Putin and telling him that he must exert influence over the Donbas fighters and agree to relaunch peace talks. “I called him urgently. I told him that this brings us no closer to peace,” RFE/RL quoted Mr. Zelenskyy as saying during a news briefing in Kyiv.
Ukraine’s president then called French President Emmanuel Macron to urge the Normandy four to convene “as quickly as possible to resume negotiations.” According to the Presidential Office, Mr. Zelensky also underscored that this wasn’t the first shelling by the enemy aimed at disrupting the peace process initiated by the Ukraine.
Bringing peace to the Donbas was one of the priorities cited by candidate Zelenskyy; now it is one of the greatest challenges facing his new administration and the newly elected Verkhovna Rada in which his Servant of the People party controls the majority of seats. Mr. Zelenskyy had previously proposed that the United States and the United Kingdom participate in the Normandy format talks – and the idea has been supported by U.S. Special Envoy for Ukraine Negotiations Kurt Volker, who said the U.S. would certainly consider the proposal if Russia was ready to talk seriously about ending the conflict. The problem is, as former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Steven Pifer, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, wrote more than two years ago: “…there is little evidence to suggest improved future prospects for Minsk II’s implementation, primarily because the Kremlin does not seem to want peace.”
The idea of the U.S. joining the Normandy group is certain to be discussed when Presidents Donald Trump and Zelensky meet in Washington sometime in September. It is clear to all that the peace process has stalled; perhaps the involvement of the U.S. and the U.K. at this stage can jumpstart that process.