DISINFO: Russia not bound by Minsk deals, only Ukraine and DNR/LNR are warring sides
SUMMARY
Russia has no obligations under the Minsk agreements because it is not a party to them. The Package of Measures is binding only for Kyiv on the one hand and Donetsk and Luhansk on the other hand.
RESPONSE
This is a recurring disinformation narrative from pro-Kremlin outlets claiming that Russia is a mediator in Eastern Ukraine along with France, Germany and the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), while Ukraine and the separatists are the only warring sides.
In reality, it is an established fact that Russia is a party to the Donbas conflict. Ukrainian troops have seized several Russian active-duty soldiers in Donbas since the war broke out in 2014. Russia has been supplying the separatists with weapons. Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2015 acknowledged Russian military presence in Donbas, adding that they were not servicemen. However, he admitted Moscow’s military involvement in Eastern Ukraine. Separatist leaders themselves admit that there are a lot of Russian servicemen in Donbas, who fight there while on vacation from duty in Russia. Although these people may be on vacation, it does not deny the fact that Russian soldiers and officers do serve in Donbas.
All Minsk agreements, signed by representatives of the OSCE, Ukraine, Russia and leaders of the illegal separatist entities, call for the withdrawal of foreign troops from Ukraine. The Protocol on the results of consultations of the Trilateral Contact Group, signed in Minsk on 5 September 2014, obliged the warring sides to “Remove unlawful military formations and military hardware, as well as militants and mercenaries, from the territory of Ukraine.”
The Memorandum on the implementation of the Protocol, signed in Minsk on 19 September 2014, reads: “All foreign military formations and military equipment, as well as militants and mercenaries, are to exit the territory of Ukraine under OSCE monitoring.”
The Package of measures for the Implementation of the Minsk agreements, signed there on 12 February 2015, contains the following provision: “Withdrawal of all foreign armed formations, military equipment, as well as mercenaries from the territory of Ukraine under monitoring of the OSCE. Disarmament of all illegal groups.”
All these provisions are applicable to Russia as well, whose servicemen are fighting in Donbas, no matter whether they are active-duty servicemen or self-styled holiday-makers.
Asked by a Ukrainian journalist in 2020 about whether Russia is a party to the Donbas conflict, former Special Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office in Ukraine and in the Trilateral Contact Group Martin Sajdik said: "Russia, Ukraine, and the OSCE are members of the Trilateral Contact Group. This group was set up to find a solution to the Donbas conflict through the implementation of the Minsk agreements. Obviously, the OSCE is not a party to the conflict, it’s only a mediator. Then it’s easy to answer a question about the parties to the conflict."
All these facts prove that Russia is a party to the conflict in Donbas, and is, consequently, bound by the Minsk agreements.
Read more disinformation cases claiming that Ukraine is violating the Minsk agreements while Russia is not a party to the Donbas conflict.