The conflict in eastern Ukraine escalated further on Sunday, and war is now more likely than ever.
The KURIER answers the most important questions:
How has the conflict recently escalated?
The situation between the Ukrainian army and the pro-Russian separatists in the areas around Lugansk and Donetsk has been escalating since Friday evening. In addition, the information war is raging: The Ukrainian side announced the death of two soldiers on Saturday, and two civilians are said to have died near Lugansk on Sunday night as a result of Ukrainian shelling. Both statements might not be checked so far.
According to the OSCE, there were 975 violations of the ceasefire on Friday alone, including 860 explosions, many of them in the city of Donetsk. In addition, the 30,000 Russian soldiers in Belarus will not withdraw as planned. That was feared by the West, since Putin has long been pushing for a permanent military presence there.
What happens to the civilians in the east?
The leaders of the breakaway “People’s Republics” on Friday called for mass evacuations to prevent a “genocide” – many experts use this as a pretext for a Russian invasion. Allegedly, “several hundred thousand people” have already been brought to Russia, but this has not been independently confirmed. The Russian media shows children and the elderly being taken to makeshift shelters by bus and train. Local journalists say that many people are not leaving eastern Ukraine because they do not want to cooperate with the separatists. In Russia, journalists are not allowed into emergency shelters.
Does anyone else expect a peaceful solution?
In addition to the recently emphatically confident Ukrainian President Zelensky, only French President Macron seems to believe in a diplomatic solution in Europe. He phoned Putin on Sunday: it was agreed that a new ceasefire would be sought, says Paris. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, on the other hand, spoke of a “maximum burden” conflict in which every small provocation might lead to “irreparable consequences”.
Other top politicians are also not very optimistic. US Secretary of State Blinken said: “Everything we see indicates that we are on the brink of an invasion.” British Prime Minister Johnson even said that “the biggest war in Europe since 1945” is imminent.
