The Battle for Novorussiya

[Lauren Johnson]

Another armistice is now official and things are quieter. Supposedly Azov battalion is moving towards the front in Mariupol -- Azov is not under the command of the government. Yarosh has ordered his Praviy Sektor units to keep fighting in the Debalstevo boiler. Debalstevo was leafleted again via artillery shells calling for surrender versus death. Mixed reports have been coming in on Debalstevo itself so far.

Here is an interesting comment from the Quemodo Institute, one of the critics of the Minsk II agreements. Their point is that the declaration of independence on the behalf of the DPR seems to have been forgotten. Then Zacharchenko goes and totally redeems himself:

Zakharchenko Reinstates DPR Independence. In a brilliantly executed turnabout, Donetsk People's Republic Prime Minister Alexander Zakharchenko has in essence reinstated the DPR Declaration of Independence, according to his statements in this Euromaidan Press video. A very rough transcript of his words, typed fom the subtitles, reads as follows: "We regard the Minsk agreement a victory, paradoxically, in that we will be able to change Ukraine itself. Ukraine's constitution and political processes are controlled by us. The Minsk agreement is vague and open to interpretation. Note that the Minsk agreement does not mention Debaltsevo. Ukraine has betrayed the 5000 men in the Debaltsevo paocket. We will regard any attempts of Ukraine troops to break out of the pocket or deblockade it as a violation of the Minsk ceasefire. Kiev WILL try this, which is why the Minsk ceasefire has already been violated. We will follow our own election law, already adopted by the People's Council. Local elections will be governed by this law. I don't know what Poroshenko hopes for. This allowed us to understand the Minsk agreements in this way. We understand it as de facto independence, and will go from there. This is the way we signed them and the way we understand them. We are breaking none of the agreements. Minsk allows for providing us with special powers. If our demands of de facto independence are not met, we will keep insisting the territory held by Ukrainian army is illegally occupied and the borders of the Donetsk People's Republic are the borders of the Donetsk region. We have the right to live separately and have separate economic policies. The processes happening here actually have nothing to do with Ukraine. The way Ukraine sees them does not matter at all." The video is found at Terrorist leader Zakharcheko rejects key points of Minsk agreements (Feb 14). Quemado Institute rejoices at this turn of events and fully supports Zakharchenko's efforts.