Russia, Ukraine fail to reach breakthrough in talks aimed at ending Donbass conflict

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Feb 11, 2022: According to a report by Reuters, Russia and Ukraine said they had failed to reach any breakthrough in a day of talks with French and German officials aimed at ending an eight-year separatist conflict in eastern Ukraine.

The lack of progress has dealt a blow to efforts to end Ukraine’s wider crisis, with Russia deploying more than 100,000 troops near Ukraine’s borders, raising fears of war. Russia’s envoy Dmitry Kozak said in a briefing after talks in Berlin last night that it was not possible for Russia and Ukraine to agree on different interpretations of the 2015 agreement between pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainian government forces.

“We have not been able to overcome it,” he said. Meanwhile Ukraine’s envoy Andriy Yermak said no progress had been made, but both sides agreed to continue talks.

The conflict in the breakaway regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, collectively known as Donbass, continues despite a ceasefire. Observers at the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) often record violations, sometimes with hundreds of incidents each day.

Ukraine says about 15,000 people have been killed since 2014. Representatives of Russia, Ukraine, the OSCE and the two separatist regions signed a 13-point agreement in Minsk in February 2015, backed by the leaders of France and Germany.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused Ukraine on Thursday of trying to rewrite the agreement and cherry-pick only the elements most advantageous to it. Ukraine denies the assertion and says it is committed to the accord.

Meanwhile Ukraine too has rejected Moscow’s claim that it has nothing to do with the conflict, saying Russia’s forces are fighting alongside separatists inside Ukraine. Kyiv has refused to hold talks with the leaders of the breakaway regions, but President Vladimir Zelensky has offered to hold direct talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, which the Kremlin has so far rejected.

Russia denies plans to invade Ukraine but says it wants to impose “red lines” to ensure its former Soviet neighbor does not join the NATO military alliance.

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