The escalation of the situation in eastern Ukraine led to another round of negotiations in Minsk. They were held on 12 February, with envoys of Ukraine, Russia, Germany and France. The agreements were signed by the Contact Group comprising representatives of Ukraine, Russia, unrecognized republics and the OSCE.

The parties upheld the arrangements made in the previous Minsk negotiations, to define the measures to put those in operation. Moreover, hostilities were to stop immediately and Ukraine was to carry out constitutional reform and implement legal regulations guaranteeing special status to certain districts in the oblasts. A security zone was to be established, from which heavy military equipment was to be withdrawn, and Ukraine was obliged to change the constitution to decentralize the governance system.

However, Minsk II agreements failed to bring the conflict to a halt. Ukraine did not regain control over about 3 percent of its territory, and thousands of people continued to be killed each year. As a result of the fighting in eastern Ukraine, approximately 2 million Ukrainians were displaced either to other regions of Ukraine or outside the country.

The Anti-Terrorist Operation officially ended on 30 April 2018. Following the adoption of the law on the “reintegration of the Donbas”, a Joint Forces Operation was declared, under which the General Staff took over the command of the armed forces in the Donbas.

On 25 November 2018, the Russians attacked ships of the Ukrainian Navy in the Kerch Strait, in an attempted extortion of Ukraine’s indirect recognition of the annexation of Crimea (by forced request for consent to sailing through the strait). The Berdiansk and the Nikopol armoured artillery boats and the Jana Kapu tug boat were blocked under the Kerch Bridge and seized by the Russian side. In response, Ukraine introduced 30-day martial law in the territory of ten oblasts, drawing the attention of the international community to the situation in Crimea.

Photo: The leaders of Belarus, Russia, Germany, France and Ukraine during talks in Minsk, February 11–12, 2015. Source: Kremlin.ru, CC BY 4.0