Ukrainian peace talk preliminaries to begin Sunday subject logo: DONBASWAR
2014-12-18
Posted by: badanov

Peace talks between the Ukrainian government and the Donbas rebels are tentatively scheduled to begin Sunday, according to Russian language news accounts.

Both Ukrainian president Piotr Poroshenko and Donetsk president Aleksandr Zakharcheko have separately announced the talks, which were originally set to begin last December 9th.

The talks, a resumption of the Mink Peace Accords, are supposed to deal with the most difficult issues of disarmament and the political status of the two breakaway republics, Lugansk and Donetsk.

Some of the preliminaries are to be held via video conferencing slated to start today and run through Friday.

According to a report posted in vesti-ukr.com, Zacharchenko has stated the meeting would take place, but that an agenda had not been agreed to.

Wednesday Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov stated that one of the reasons the start of the next round was delayed was because representatives of Lugansk and Donetsk want to quickly resolve the issue of economics.

Poroshenko in recent weeks has imposed an "economic blockade" of the region and has shut off normal activities such as payments for pensioners, an act Russian president Vladimir Putin characterized as incomprehensible. The weather in southeastern Ukraine is cold and most non combatants are facing severe shortages in food, water and power.

As of now, the two nascent republics are paying the pensioners.

Economics are a issue of contention among militia groups, commanders and local politicians. Earlier in December, Cossack military units sympathetic to the rebels started shelling rebel units from Lugansk after it was discovered the Lugansk government was trading coal with the Ukrainians. As a result, a top commander, Ataman Kozitsin was recalled back to Russia.

News still circulates in Russia, however, that Kosityn was replaced because he became "too independence minded".

Chris Covert writes about foreign military issues for Rantburg.com. He can be reached at grurkka@gmail.com. You can read past articles about the 2014 war in southeastern Ukraina by clicking here.

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