kravietz 🦇<p><a class="hashtag" href="https://agora.echelon.pl/tag/poland" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#Poland</a> journalist describes his experiences from the “demilitarised zone” as implemented by <a class="hashtag" href="https://agora.echelon.pl/tag/russia" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#Russia</a> after 2015 <a class="hashtag" href="https://agora.echelon.pl/tag/minskagreements" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#MinskAgreements</a>:</p><blockquote><p>To understand the conditions in such a zone, one needs to know what the agreement was at the time. Both sides agreed to an <strong>immediate and full ceasefire</strong> in the Donbas combat area. They agreed that both sides would <strong>withdraw heavy weapons</strong> to a distance of at least <strong>50 km for artillery</strong> of 100 mm calibre and larger; at least <strong>70 km for multi-barrel rocket launchers</strong>; and at least 140 km for Tornado-S, Uragan, Smiercz and Tochka-U tactical rocket systems.</p></blockquote><p>The author doesn’t describe the broader context that Russia never implemented even the first step - “immediate and full ceasefire”. In 2014 in defiance of the Minsk 1 Russia stormed Donetsk Airport, in 2015 in defiance of Minsk 2 Russia stormed Debaltseve. But he does describe how it looked on the ground in Avdiivka where he was in February 2015:</p><blockquote><p>On arrival at the complex of buildings that housed the forward base, we immediately descended into the basement as Russian artillery shells were exploding all around us. After an hour or so the shelling stopped and we were able to move above ground level. We crossed the sections between buildings uncovered towards the Russian positions by running because of possible sniper fire. Ukrainian soldiers showed me the distinctive explosion funnels of 155mm calibre shells, which the agreement said would be located 50km away, along with howitzers. On a large square stood a corrugated sheet metal structure chopped up with shells. All around was a lot of artillery-damaged equipment.</p></blockquote><p>Interestingly, he was also allowed to the Russian side of the front line and that’s what he saw there:</p><blockquote><p> Until late summer 2015. The Russians were still letting me into the so-called separatist republics of Donetsk and Luhansk. This was done in such a way that, having obtained the relevant documents on the Ukrainian side, I would walk out of the Ukrainian blockpost on foot and march across a roughly 700-metre strip of no-man’s land to the separatist-Russian blockpost. (…) Already on the Donetsk side, tanks and combat vehicles were a common sight. <strong>Artillery batteries were spread out between blocks of flats.</strong> This was particularly perfidious, as Ukrainians responded to such shelling with their own. Separatists later filmed the shelled residential areas as proof of the Ukrainians’ “criminal” actions.</p></blockquote><p>Source: <a href="https://wiadomosci.onet.pl/kraj/strefa-zdemilitaryzowana-na-rosyjsko-ukrainskim-froncie-to-nie-bedzie-latwy-kawalek/e6tv2c5" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://wiadomosci.onet.pl/kraj/strefa-zdemilitaryzowana-na-rosyjsko-ukrainskim-froncie-to-nie-bedzie-latwy-kawalek/e6tv2c5</a> (in Polish)</p>