Another stage of the mutual pullback of Ukrainian troops and Russian-backed militant formations in the Donbas war zone has begun.
The bilateral disengagement of forces and weaponry is part of a long-stalled peace settlement in the embattled region.
The pullback officially launched at noon local time on Nov. 9 as both Ukrainian armed forces and Russia-backed militants fired off white signal rockets on their respective sides of the front line near the village of Petrivske in central Donetsk Oblast, some 600 kilometers southeast of Kyiv.
According to the Ukrainian military, both sides then confirmed their readiness to begin at 12:10-12.15 p.m. by firing green signal rockets. Ukrainian observation points in the war zone and international monitors from the Special Monitoring Mission of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) both confirmed this.
At 12:20, the operation officially began.
The disengagement near Petrivske envisages a total of 42 Ukrainian troops, 3 armored vehicles and firearms units being gradually withdrawn one kilometer back from the front line and taking up new combat posts closer to the Ukrainian-controlled town of Bohdanivka, Ukraine’s Joint Forces command reported.
“The process is being verified by OSCE monitors and our military envoys to the Joint Coordination and Control Center,” a cross-frontline military liaison body, the Joint Forces command said on Nov. 9.
The disengagement of manpower and weaponry will continue for three days. After that, an operation to locate and defuse landmines and dismantle old fortifications and other military installations will take place. The post-disengagement work in the area should last 29 days.
This isn’t the first attempt at disengagement at Petrivske. There was another attempted pullback in the area in 2016.
“But the enemy was nevertheless advancing, so the Ukrainian party occupied its (previous) positions again,” said Joint Forces Deputy Commanding General Bohdan Bondar. “This confirms that we have experience (in this regard) and will return in case of provocations.
“In case of enemy shelling or (any other) provocations, a combat formation leader in the area, in accordance with the brigade commander, makes a decision to return to old positions.”
During an on-site briefing near Petrivske, the general noted that no further disengagement areas along the 420-kilometer frontline had been discussed during peace negotiations.
Provided it is successful, the disengagement in Petrivske will mark the completion of mutual withdrawal at three specific front-line hotspots that had been planned as far back as 2016.
In 2019, newly-elected President Volodymyr Zelensky gave the stalled process a new breath of life as part of his peace initiative for the region, which has faced a Russian-led invasion since 2014.
Earlier, disengagement operations were successfully completed near the front-line crossing of Stanytsya Luhanska near the occupied city of Luhansk in late July and at another site near the town of Zolote in late October.
Following the mutual, one-kilometer pullback of Ukrainian and Russian-backed forces, the newly-created demilitarized zones were subject to intense mine sweeping and the reconstruction of vital civilian infrastructure.
Disengagement at Stanytsya Luhanska allowed construction to begin on a new pedestrian bridge between Ukrainian-controlled and occupied territory. It should be completed by the end of November. Previously, civilians were forced to navigate a rickety and partially destroyed bridge to cross the front line.
Since the withdrawal at the two sites, no enemy advancements and no escalation in fighting has been reported in the disengagement areas.
The Ukrainian military command says mutual disengagement will ensure better security for civilians living between the combatants by keeping both Ukrainian forces and Russian-backed militants farther from one another.
Nonetheless, the initiative has drawn fierce criticism from part of Ukrainian society, which terms the withdrawal of forces in Donbas “capitulation” to the Kremlin and the surrender of the country’s territory to the enemy.
