It’s been one year since Ukraine, Russia and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) have declared a ceasefire in Donbas on July 27, 2020.
Despite the formally ongoing ceasefire, it hasn’t been a quiet year. Russian-backed militants opened fire 1,995 times, killing 45 Ukrainian soldiers and injuring 163 soldiers, according to the Ukrainian delegation at the Trilateral Contact Group, a group set up to negotiate a diplomatic resolution to Russia’s war in eastern Ukraine.
Just on July 26, Russian-backed militants violated the ceasefire 15 times, having injured seven Ukrainian service people. So far, on July 27, they have attacked Ukrainian troops two times, reports the Joint Forces Operation.
Still, the Ukrainian delegation praised the results of the ceasefire. Compared to the same period, from July 2019 to July 2020, the number of killed Ukrainian soldiers fell twofold and the number of injuries decreased threefold.
In general, Russian-backed militants committed nearly three times fewer attacks on the Ukrainian forces during the ceasefire than in the previous 12-month period.
From July 27, 2019 to July 27, 2020, Russian-led militants attacked the Ukrainian army positions 4,257 times, killing 88 Ukrainian soldiers and injuring 494 more.
In 2021, Russia began to amass large numbers of troops along the Ukrainian border. The buildup of Russian forces hit a peak of over 100,000 personnel in April, raising fears of an all-out invasion of Ukraine.
The Russian Ministry of Defense had announced on April 22, that the troops would start to return to their permanent deployments.
However, Ukraine’s Defense Ministry said that the promised withdrawal was proceeding very slowly. At the beginning of May, the New York Times had reported that nearly 80,000 Russian soldiers remained near the border.
