Leonid Kuchma, 81, Ukraine’s second president, has left the Trilateral Contact Group on Ukraine on July 28.
Kuchma led the Ukrainian side at the table in Minsk for a total of five years.
The group includes representatives of Ukraine, Russia and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and was formed to find a peaceful solution to the war in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region after it was invaded by Russia in 2014.
The Office of President Volodymyr Zelensky has thanked Kuchma for his work, however, didn’t specify the reasons behind Kuchma’s departure.
It’s not the first time Kuchma leaves Minsk.
In October 2018, Kuchma left the group citing “critical age.” He returned to the talks in June 2019 shortly after Zelensky took office.
Kuchma’s replacement hasn’t yet been announced by the president’s office.
The Trilateral Contact Group on Ukraine has been meeting regularly since June 2014 without substantial results.
On Sept. 5, 2014 members of the group signed the so-called Minsk Protocol, a twelve-point agreement meant to stop the war in Donbas and reintegrate the occupied territories back into Ukraine, giving them autonomy from Kyiv.
The Minsk Protocol was signed by Kuchma, OSCE representative Heidi Tagliavini and Russian representative Mikhail Zurabov.
Soon after the proclaimed ceasefire, Russia and its proxies began their offensive near the Donetsk International Airport. The airport collapsed in January 2015, killing tens of Ukrainian soldiers trapped in the airport.
Soon after, Russian forces made further advances in the Battle of Debaltseve, killing over 200 Ukrainian soldiers.
Russia’s ongoing war against Ukraine prompted the leaders of Ukraine, Germany, France and Russia – known as the Normandy Four – to draw a new agreement. On Feb. 12, 2015, the agreement commonly knows as Minsk II was drafted in Minsk.
Since then, the Trilateral Contact Group has mainly focused on moving forward with the second Minsk protocol with no result.
Since Zelensky took power in May 2019, a number of steps were taken to bring a sustainable ceasefire to the region.
Three prisoner exchanges between Ukraine and Russia and its proxies took place since September, bringing 131 Ukrainian home from captivity.
Ukraine and Russian-led proxies rolled back weapons and personnel near three towns on the frontline – Stanytsya Luhanska, Petrivske and Zolote.
Ukraine has also repaired the bridge in Stanytsya Luhanska connecting the town with Luhansk, a regional capital of 450,000 people occupied by Russia since 2014.
However, these small steps didn’t approach a sustainable ceasefire. In 2020, over 50 Ukrainian soldiers have died because of enemy fire. According to the OSCE monitoring mission, since June 2019 the ceasefire was breached over 5,000 times.
On July 22, the Trilateral Contact Group has agreed to implement a new ceasefire starting on July 27. The ceasefire was breached within less than an hour.
