Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to include more information about Zelensky’s conversation with Putin.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has held his second phone call with Russian leader Vladimir Putin on Aug. 7, after four Ukrainian military servicemen were killed in action in the eastern Donbas warzone.
The deadly incident between Ukrainian military and Russian-backed forces occurred on Aug. 6 at approximately 10:20 a.m. local time near the hot spot of Pavlopil, northeast of the port city of Mariupol. According to the military, the militants targeted the Ukrainian lines with an RPG anti-tank grenade launcher at close range and inflicted fatal injuries on four Ukrainian fighters from the 36th Marine Brigade.
On Aug. 7, Zelensky met with top military officials. Afterwards, at a press briefing at the presidential office, Zelensky said he told Putin that “the deaths of (Ukrainian servicemen) are not bringing us any closer to peace.”
“I urged (him) to use his leverage on (the militants) to make them stop killing our people. Another issue raised by me was that, yes, we’re continuing to defuse landmines, and the opposite side must accelerate dismantling fortifications for the sake of constructing a bridge at the entry point (between Ukrainian-controlled and occupied territory) at Stanytsya Luhanska. I raised several more questions regarded bringing our prisoners back.”
The Ukrainian president added that he and Putin had a “long” conversation.
Later in the day, the Kremlin press service reported that Putin stressed the “exclusive importance of Minsk agreements’s consistent realization, including the legal aspects of granting (the Russian-controlled territories) special status.”
Under the Second Minsk Agreement, signed in February 2015, Ukraine committed to providing the Russian-occupied part of Donbas with semi-independent status which would entitle the puppet “republics” to have their own military, broad autonomy in local governance, their own language policy, and the right to independently cooperate with Russia.
Moreover, this special territorial status would have to be enshrined in the country’s constitution to comply with the agreement.
That commitment is widely unpopular within Ukrainian society, where many criticize it as effectively terminating Ukraine’s sovereignty over the region and legalizing Russia’s de facto control over it.
The controversial provision has never been implemented by Ukraine over years of continued low-intensity war in the region. Instead, Kyiv demands that Moscow completely halt the hostilities before Ukraine will define the territorial status of Donbas within the country.
In his conversation with Putin, Zelensky reportedly expressed reluctance to change the country’s main law as part of the Minsk process. According to the presidential press service, the Ukrainian leader told Putin he would “protect the rights of all Ukrainians no matter where they are, and there is no need to introduce amendments to the Constitution of Ukraine.”
Earlier, on Aug. 6, Zelensky also called on German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron, and Putin to expedite another Normandy Four negotiation meeting of the four nations in light of the Aug. 7 attack.
Zelensky also accused the Russian-backed militants of derailing the negotiation process and failing to observe a total truce in Donbas. On July 21, the two sides declared yet another ceasefire devoted to the harvest season. It held for only 17 days, the Ukrainian president added.
Speaking at the Aug. 7 briefing, Ukraine’s Chief of General Staff, Lieutenant General Ruslan Khomchak, reported more details of the deadly incident near Pavlopil. According to the high-ranking officer, the four Marines were conducting engineering activities when an enemy rocket-propelled round carrying an 82-millimeter mortar shell directly hit their trench.
Immediately following the attack, the Ukrainian fighters were ready to retaliate, but the militants quickly retreated from their firing position, General Khomchak said.
He added that, since the latest ceasefire was declared on July 21, six Ukrainian servicemen have been killed and nine have been injured.
However, according to the Khomchak, over the last 2.5 weeks, the intensity of hostilities in Donbas has decreased.
Starting from midnight on Aug. 7, the Ukrainian military reported no further attacks.
