The ceasefire that was negotiated between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and Russian President Vladimir Putin is still holding, with no incidents having occurred along the line of contact for the last three days. The negotiators met and have agreed to remove soldiers from four territories and de-mine another 20 territories, according to a new agreement between the Trilateral Contact Group reached on August 19.

The agreement fulfils a plan reached at the Normandy Format summit in Paris in early December and draws the sides closer to holding another Normandy Format summit in Berlin, the statement said. A second meeting was due to be held in April, but was postponed, partly due to the coronacrisis and partly as the Russian side said the Ukrainian side had not fulfilled enough of the commitments made at the Paris meeting.

The latest Trilateral talks lasted for two days, during which, in a video conference, Donbass representatives repeatedly demanded cancelling a parliamentary resolution that they view to be in violation of the Minsk Accords. Their aim was to disrupt a meeting of Normandy Format foreign policy advisers, said Serhiy Harmash, a Donbass journalist and member of the Ukrainian delegation. In his diplomatic debut, Ukrainian delegation head Leonid Kravchuk agreed to ask Parliament to review the resolution if the Donbass negotiators agreed to unblock the talks.

“Nothing concrete, but now it will be difficult for the Russians to disrupt the meeting of Normandy Format advisers, which (Dmitry) Kozak doesn’t want to attend after that famous letter in which he stated he will no longer participate ‘in this.’ At least the West understands that this certainly isn’t to Russia’s benefit. On the whole, Kravchuk’s debut in the delegation was very successful,” Harmash wrote on his Facebook page.

Russian-backed forces in Donbass fired upon Ukrainian forces once on August 19 in what was described as a provocation by the Joint Forces Operation press service. “The shots were not targeted, so Ukrainian soldiers didn’t fire in return and didn’t fall for the enemy’s provocation,” the statement said. No shots were fired on August 18 on the Donbass warfront, the press service reported the next morning.

“The Zelenskiy administration has made it a central part of its foreign policy to engage in prisoner exchanges with Russia, as well as forces withdrawals and de-mining of territory in occupied Donbass. These small steps earn the support of its electorate, which is satisfied with any progress made in resolving the war. They also create a positive daily news flow for not only the president, but The People’s Servant Party (particularly ahead of the October local elections),” Zenon Zawada of Concorde Capital said in a note.

“So far, the ceasefire launched on July 27 is going surprisingly well, with very few violations. It is probably the most successful ceasefire in six years of warfare, which some attribute to the newly implemented co-ordinating mechanisms. Yet sceptics believe the Russians are using this moment to move more military hardware and personnel into Donbass, reorganise their forces and adopt new strategies,” Zawada added.