Russia Mocks International Accords,

Violates Ceasefire, Kills 41 in 2020

How long will the Zelenskyy Administration and the free world recklessly believe Russian lies, naïvely hoping that the Kremlin can ever change its deceitful, murderous colors?

For six years Russia has waged a war against Ukraine while Kyiv and its free world partners, the United States and others, have sat across a negotiating table from their age-old enemy and accepted its fabrications and promises to abide by a ceasefire while it plans the next bloody attack against Ukrainian defensive positions.

In February 2014, the world cheered and glad handed Russian officials at the closing ceremony of Russian Olympics while Moscow was on the threshold of launching the first phase of its invasion of Ukraine. First Crimea and then Donbas. The international community was immobilized by disbelief.

After numerous failed attempts since then to negotiate an impossible diplomatic end to the war, Russia continues to haughtily brush aside agreements while pressing forward with its mission to re-subjugate Ukraine.

Since the beginning of the year, the Armed Forces of Ukraine suffered 41 killed and 182 wounded. Meanwhile, Putin gloats, Zelenskyy succumbs to Moscow’s demands to accept its mercenary terrorists as legitimate negotiating partners, and the West repeats unpersuasive empty threats as Ukrainian mothers, wives and children cry over the fresh graves of the nation’s heroes.

A month ago Russian forces conducted a major offensive against Ukrainian positions on the night of February 18 that took Ukraine and its allies by surprise and raised questions about whether Moscow really wants peace in Donbas as much as it claims in front of the gullible international arena.

Russian troops fired banned 120mm mortars as well as grenade launchers of various types, and heavy machine guns, as reported by the press center of Ukraine’s Joint Forces Operation on Facebook. Supported by massive fire, Russian invaders launched an offensive operation, attempting to advance across the contact line.

Russia’s military forces later mounted nine attacks on Ukrainian positions in Donbas on March 20, with four Ukrainian soldiers wounded in action, the press center of the Joint Forces Operation (JFO) reported.

The enemy opened fire with prohibited 120mm and 82mm mortars, grenade launchers of various types, heavy machine guns, and small arms. Ukrainian positions near the towns of Maryinka and Krasnohorivka, and the villages of Shyrokyne, Novotroyitske, Krymske, Luhanske, Khutir Vilny, Novhorodske, and Novotoshkivske came under attack.

Interfax Ukraine also reported that Russian invaders violated the ceasefire three times in Donbas on Saturday, March 21, the Defense Ministry of Ukraine said. “Since the beginning of the day, as of 12:00, Russia-led armed formations have violated the ceasefire regime three times. At 3:00 am, Russia-occupation forces attacked the positions of the Joint Forces Operation (JFO) near Novhorodske using a 120mm mortar to launch 15 shells,” the spokesperson for the ministry, Oleksandr Motuzianyk, said at a press briefing in Kyiv on Saturday.

The enemy also mounted an attack near Krasnohorivka using a tripod-mounted anti-tank grenade launcher. Ukrainian defenders returned fire. Another attack was recorded near Novotroyitske, with the enemy using a hand-held anti-tank grenade launcher.
Ukrainian soldiers haven’t been the only casualties of the war. UA Wire reported last week that Aleksander Khodakovsky, a former commander of the Vostok battalion and former Security Minister of Russia’s so-called Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), described how DPR terrorists killed Ukrainian civilians. Journalist Denis Kazansky posted a fragment of Khodakovsky’s interview on his video blog.

According to Khodakovsky, the Russian mercenaries stopped a car with three civilians at a checkpoint in the Donbas. They confiscated the car and shot people in the back of the heads in a nearby forest. Khodakovsky also admitted that the terrorists robbed a man and shot him in his cottage.

It is obvious that Moscow has never subscribed to a diplomatic conclusion to the war. It has never veered from its historic goal of restoring the Russian empire and recapturing Ukraine and the other now independent countries.

Kyiv, Washington and the free world should stop fooling itself that Russia seeks a negotiated settlement to the war. The only way that peace and security will come to the region is if Ukraine prevails in the war, the free world actively supports it in this mission and helps it expel Russian invaders back to their country. Furthermore, Kyiv must not lose sight of the fact that the enemy and transgressor is Russia, which violated international law, and it cannot enter into negotiations with it under any circumstance unless Moscow is ready to unconditionally surrender and evacuate.