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THE CRISIS IN UKRAINE AND RELATIONS BETWEEN THE EUROPEAN UNION AND RUSSIA
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independence. Separatist leaders there followed
Crimea’s lead and appealed for annexation to
Russia. However, when no response was forth-
coming from Moscow, which refrained from
recognising their independence, the two self-
declared republics agreed on 24 May to form
their own confederation under the name
Federal State of Novorossiya.
On 17 July, Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was
shot down near Luhansk. All 298 people aboard
perished in the incident. Each party to the con-
flict accused the other of bringing down the
plane, and although neither has been able to
prove its claims, the international news media
(especially media networks in Western countries)
have laid the blame on the doorstep of the sepa-
ratists. While controversy over this incident
raged on, forces loyal to Kyiv reduced the size of
the area controlled by the rebels to approximate-
ly a third of the total territory of the two oblasts.
Under the auspices of the Organization for
Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), rep-
resentatives of Ukraine, the RPD, the RPL and the
Russian Federation met on 5 September to sign
the Minsk Protocol, by which they agreed to an
immediate ceasefire monitored by the OSCE, the
adoption of a law on local self-governance for
“particular districts” of the Donetsk and Luhansk
oblasts, local elections in accord with the afore-
mentioned legislation, the permanent monitor-
ing of the Ukrainian-Russian border by the OSCE,
a limited amnesty for the rebels and the immedi-
ate release of hostages and illegally detained per-
sons. A complementary memorandum that es-
tablished a 30-kilometer demilitarised zone as
well as a ban on the flight of military aircraft and
the withdrawal of foreign fighters from the zone
was signed on 19 September.
In spite of these agreements, armed con-
frontations between the two sides continued,
beginning with a battle for control of the
Donetsk airport, which was then in the hands of
Kyiv forces. Ukraine considered presidential and
parliamentary elections held in the RPD and RPL
on 2 November to be illegal and in violation of
the terms of the Minsk Protocol. Pro-Russian
troops sustained an offensive launched to re-
cover territory they had lost in July. The human-
itarian crisis deepened with the onset of winter
and Kyiv’s decision in November to suspend
payment of pensions and social services in zones
held by the rebels. Talks renewed in Minsk on
December 24 in the hope of obtaining a firmer
commitment from both sides to comply with
the agreements were suspended on the 27 after
having achieved no more than the exchange of
300 prisoners.
Two battalions of the Ukrainian National
Guard whose members included proto-fascist
militants aligned with Pravi Sektor who refused
to submit themselves to the discipline of the
regular army were accused of impeding human-
itarian aid convoys from entering the conflict
zone and of launching numerous artillery at-
tacks against rebel cities that caused civilian
casualties. On the other hand, Kyiv repeatedly
accused Russia of taking advantage of the
OSCE’s inability to monitor the border to move
heavy weaponry and troops (estimated to num-
ber anywhere between 3,000 and 9,000 ac-
cording to the source) into the conflict area. The
simple fact is that neither side has respected the
Minsk agreements and that both accuse the
other of having violated them.
Armed confrontations that intensified dur-
ing the last two weeks of January reached their
peak with the shelling of Mariupol, a pro-Rus-
sian city on the Sea of Azov considered to have
strategic importance for its potential to serve as
a Russian gateway to Crimea and the siege of
Devaltseve, an important railway junction. It has
been estimated that the rebels have managed