Russia’s war is still going on, now in its fourth year with no end in sight and casualties — more than 10,000 people killed already — continuing to mount. Ukraine remains no closer at the end of 2017 to regaining control of Crimea or the Russian-controlled areas of the Donbas, an area of 46,000 square kilometers, or 7 percent of the country’s territory.
The peace talks didn’t make any progress and 2017 marked the first year of the war without any Ukrainian hostages being released by the enemy. Russian-occupied Donbas moved further away from Kyiv economically, with shortages of food reported on both sides of the war front.
Here are the top 10 changes:
1. At least 190 soldiers, 98 civilians killed in 2017. The estimated number of Ukraine’s soldiers killed in action in 2017 varies from 190, according to Ministry of Defense reports, to 284 in January-October, by estimates of the Memory Book, a volunteer citizen project. The death toll of Ukraine’s soldiers since the war started in April 2014 is more than 2,700, according to the Ministry of Defense, and 3,730, according to the Memory Book. The United Nations estimated that 98 civilians were killed and 446 wounded by mid-November in 2017. The number of people killed in the war reached 10,303 as of mid-November, according to the UN.
2. Escalation in Avdiyivka, Novoluganske. Fighting intensified in the Donetsk Oblast city of Avdiyivka, with a dozen soldiers and at least one civilian being killed there in late January to early February. Four civilians were killed in this city in May after an artillery shell hit the yard of a private house. In late December, the Russian-backed forces used Grad multiple rocket launches in Novoluhanske of Donetsk Oblast, wounding at least eight civilians and damaging 40 houses. Cease-fire agreements were announced on June 24 and Sept. 1, but never took hold.
3. UN peacekeeping mission discussed. In September, Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke in favor of UN peacekeepers in Donbas. But the two sides cannot agree on the areas where the peacekeepers will be deployed and their responsibilities.
Civilians repair the roof of a house damaged by shelling in the city of Avdiyivka in Donetsk Oblast on Feb. 5. Avdiyivka, located close to Russian-occupied Donetsk, has become an epicenter of hostilities in 2017. (Volodymyr Petrov)
4. Volker as new US envoy. In July, U. S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson appointed Kurt Volker, former U. S. Ambassador to NATO, as the special representative for settling the conflict in Ukraine. Volker took a harder line on Russia’s war than his predecessor Viktoria Nuland did and urged U. S. President Donald J. Trump to provide Ukraine with lethal weapons. In late December, the Trump administration approved commercial sale of light lethal weapons to Ukraine. When Russian officers abruptly left the Joint Centre for Control and Coordination on Dec. 18, Volker warned that the exit is a sign of future escalation. Previously, Russian officers left this joint body ahead of fierce fighting over Debaltseve, now under Russian control, in 2015.
5. Ukraine’s army gains new grounds. Ukraine’s troops made slight advances into the grey zone, taking new position near Russian-occupied Debaltseve in May and Krymske village in Luhansk Oblast in June. In late November, the military also took the villages of Travneve and Hladosove, which weren’t controlled by anyone, and spread its control over Verkhniotoretseke village in Donetsk Oblast.
6. Zabrodsky appointed as chief of Ukraine’s military operation. In early November, Mykhailo Zabrodsky replaced Oleksandr Lokot on the post of head of Ukraine’s military operation in Donbas. Zabrodsky was decorated by the golden star Hero of Ukraine, the highest military medal in Ukraine, for successful military operations he conducted as head of 95th airborne brigade in 2014.
7. No prisoner exchange. With 168 Ukrainian soldiers and civilians being held by the Russian proxies in Donbas, there has been no prisoner swap yet in 2017. In November, Putin told the Russian-backed leaders in Donetsk and Luhansk that he favored prisoner exchanges. Ukraine’s government earlier agreed with Russian-led forces to swap 74 Ukrainian soldiers and civilians for 306 people from their side. But in mid-December, the Russian proxy forces made additional demands, dimming hopes for any exchange in 2017.
8. Food shortages double. Twice as many residents of war-torn areas experienced food shortages in 2017 than the year before, the World Food Program estimated. Up to 800,000 residents of Russian-occupied parts of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts and up to 410,000 of those living in the government-controlled parts of Donbas are having trouble in getting enough to eat. More than 400,000 residents, predominantly from the non-government controlled areas, lost access to their pensions in 2017.
9. The coup in Luhansk. Igor Plotnitsky, the Kremlin-installed leader in Luhansk Oblast, was ousted in late November. Local top cop Igor Kornet won the power struggle as Plotnitsky fled to Moscow. Alexander Zakharchenko, Plotnitsky’s counterpart in the Russian-occupied part of Donetsk Oblast, sent his troops to Luhansk to back Kornet. The changes were seen as a victory of the Russian Federal Security Service, or FSB, the successor agency to the Russian KGB, over Vladyslav Surkov, a Putin adviser.
10. Ukraine loses businesses in Russian-held Donbas. In late February, Russian proxies in Donetsk seized more than 40 Ukrainian state and private companies, which included businesses owned by Ukraine’s billionaire oligarch Rinat Akhmetov. Their counterparts in Luhansk later followed. Most of these businesses were given to Ukrainian oligarch Sergiy Kurchenko, a front man for ex-President Viktor Yanukovych. Both live in Russia. In March, Ukraine’s government ordered a halt to all trade with the Russian-occupied parts of Donbas until its governors return Ukrainian property. Goods from Ukraine, however, are still being smuggled there.
Kyiv Post staff writer Illia Ponomarenko contributed to this report.
