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The Latest, Best Chance to End East Ukraine War

Charles Maynes

   MOSCOW - The leaders of Russia and Ukraine hold their first
   face-to-face talks in Paris next week as part of a European summit
   aimed at ending the five-year war between Ukrainian government forces
   and pro-Russian rebels in east Ukraine.
   In advance of the latest attempt to end the bloodshed in Ukraine's
   Donbas region, observers caution that entrenched differencesmean Russia
   and Ukraine may work toward more trust-building measures, rather than
   aim for a grand bargain.
   For more than five years, Ukrainian government forces and pro-Russian
   separatists have been locked in a grinding war in eastern Ukraine's
   Donbas region that has killed more than 13,000. Over that period, the
   Kremlin has maintained, against all evidence, it is not part of a war
   in which Russian soldiers, rebranded as "volunteers," have joined in
   the fighting on the side of the rebels.
   European powers, too, have repeatedly tried, and failed, to negotiate
   an end to the violence.
   Against that backdrop, enters a newcomer, Ukrainian President Volodymyr
   Zelenskiy. A comedic actor made famous for a role playing an accidental
   Ukrainian president on TV, Zelenskiy won the real thing in a landslide
   election victory earlier this year.His central promise to voters was to
   end the war in east Ukraine.
   Russian analysts say the Kremlin has taken notice.
   "He promised peace. That was one of the most important points of his
   election campaign and he tries to deliver," says Andrey Kortunov of the
   Russian International Affairs Council in an interview with VOA. "So we
   see a new flexibility on the Ukrainian sidewhich allowed them toreach a
   couple of agreements on specific issues."

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