PKSOI/GLOBAL TRENDS CASE STUDIES Controlling Ukraine, The EU and Russia in Ukraine | Seite 5

Case Study # 0517-02
PKSOI TRENDS GLOBAL CASE STUDY SERIES
Ukraine. Ukrainian President Poroshenko addressed the UN General Assembly on 21 September 2016 during the
General Debate of the 71 st session with the following words:
“The terrorist component of the undeclared hybrid war that Russia wages against Ukraine is evident. Dramatically,
it has become a daily routine in the occupied areas of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine. For over two years
of this tragedy, Ukraine has received extensive and irrefutable evidence of direct involvement of Russia, its state agen-
cies and officials in financing, sponsorship, and coordination of terrorist groups which have committed countless crimes
against my compatriots. The shocking reality is that there is a roughly 38,000-strong illegal military force in Donbas and
its large part is regulars and mercenaries from Russia.
This force is armed to the teeth by Russia. And this is no exaggeration — they have at their disposal about 700 tanks,
1,200 armoured vehicles, more than 1,000 artillery systems and more than 300 multiple launch rocket systems. Russia
keeps sending weapons, ammunition and manpower to Ukraine through the uncontrolled part of the Ukrainian-Russian
state border.
Sending by roads and by rail, on a daily basis. At the same time, the Russian side continues insisting at all forums, in-
cluding the UN, that it has nothing to do with all of this and that the Russians are not there in Ukraine. Even hypocrite
Soviet leaders could hardly compete with the outright lies and manipulations deployed by the Kremlin today.” 6
Claims that Russia has continuously provided heavy armaments to the separatists, including advanced air defense
systems, regularly surface. In July 2014 Reuters published an article in which two journalists reported the tracing of a
Russian rocket and logbook that was seized in eastern Ukraine. The rocket had been signed out at a Russian military
base three weeks earlier. 7
According to a March 2017 report by members of the U.S. Army’s Command and General Staff College, conventional
Russian ground forces openly fought with the eastern Ukrainian separatists in five major battles between July 2014 and
February 2015 that led to significant Ukrainian defeats. In fact, the Russian 49 th Army directed these Donbass cam-
paigns from Stavropol, providing the preponderance of Russia’s innovative Battalion Tactical Groups (BTGs). Some of
the BTGs came from as far away as Vladivostok and the Kuril Islands. The BTGs consisted of one tank company, three
mechanized infantry companies, an anti-armor company, two to three self-propelled artillery batteries, a multiple launch
rocket battery, and two air defense batteries. 8
According to the Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) of the OSCE, Ukraine, the separatists and Russian forces have
yet to withdraw their forces and heavy arms behind the lines of contact drawn in Minsk II and to maintain the ceasefire
called for under the Accords. 9 Russia on the other hand claims that Ukraine is not fulfilling nor interested in imple-
menting agreed upon parts of the Minsk agreements. Remarks by the late Permanent Representative of the Russian
Federation to the UN, Ambassador Vitaly Churkin, following the UN Security Council consultations on the situation
in Ukraine illustrate Russia’s position:
“…The problem is that the Ukrainian side does not show much of an interest in implementing the Minsk Agreements. In
the Minsk Agreements the key actually is paragraph 11 – it is very easy for you to reread that paragraph: constitution re-
form, special status for Donbass, Donetsk and Lugansk, and amnesty law. They don’t want to do that. They keep twisting
the issues coming up with preconditions and things like that. We call upon all those who have influence on Kiev to make
sure that they do what they are supposed to do. For that actually I don’t see why there is a particular need in high-level
meetings, because it is very clear what needs to be done.” 10