Against the backdrop of rumors about the resignation of the main Russian negotiator for Ukraine, Vladislav Surkov, his American counterpart expects that Russia will return to the negotiating table with a proposal for peacekeepers.
US Special Representative for Ukraine Kurt Volker, who last met Surkov in January, told VOA that he did not receive any reports of Surkov's status or a new meeting.
According to Volcker, after talking with Surkov, he had the impression that Moscow would soon "return with a proposal on how the peacekeeping mission can expand in terms of geography, mandate and timing".
"This would be very interesting, and we are ready to discuss this with the Russian side," Volcker said.. "We are still ready to bring peace to this region, but we need to listen to the Russian side".
Volcker arrived in Donbas on Tuesday to discuss the situation on the front line with Lieutenant-General Sergei Naev, commander of the Joint Operational Headquarters of the All-Union Central Command.
The US Agency for International Development on Monday said that it is ready to provide Kiev with $ 125 million for projects to restore infrastructure in the Donbass and surrounding areas.
Donbass, bordering on Russia, became the epicenter of clashes with pro-Russian separatists after the annexation of the Crimea. Most of the local infrastructure was destroyed. While Moscow insists that local ethnic Russians themselves organized their defenses, numerous reviews of observers and international human rights organizations, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, show that Russian army units provided them with direct assistance.
In February, OSCE observers reported that violence escalated to a record level several months after the firing of the front-line settlement, which affected eight civilians and destroyed dozens of houses.
On the way to negotiations with the Ukrainian authorities and observers at the Joint Control and Coordination Center (SCCC) Volker told the Ukrainian service of the Voice of America that the Ukrainian military command appreciates assistance in restoring infrastructure, but still wants assistance and in the defense plan that the United States considers an important.
Since in December, Russia withdrew from the STCC, a Ukrainian-Russian organization designed to ensure the security of OSCE observers and facilitate the implementation of the Minsk Agreements, the Ukrainian military leadership is struggling to maintain the status of the cease-fire required for reconstruction.
According to Volcker, after leaving SCCC, which allowed the Russian and Ukrainian military joint efforts to defuse the situation and ensure compliance with local armistice, Russia forced Ukraine and its allies to seek direct negotiations with local "puppet regimes". However, local separatist groups, in his words, do not really control the situation on the front line.
"We need to communicate with the Russian side to effectively discuss such things as the implementation of the ceasefire, and they withdrew from the SCCC," he added..
According to Volcker, civilians and military people note the need for a ceasefire: "Everything from electricity and water filtration systems and pumps to the crossings themselves across bridges or roads needs to be repaired and improved. It is very difficult to do this when there are fights around ".
He added that residents of the Donbass want a peace agreement that would restore territorial control to Kiev: "And this is obviously ethnic Russians, judging by the language they speak. The fact that the Russian-speaking population is pro-Russian and that this conflict is ethnic in nature - all this simply does not correspond to reality ".
On the first day of the new US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, US officials who visited the NATO ministerial meeting in Brussels said that the US does not intend to "return to normal interaction with Russia" until Moscow withdraws its troops, does not stop supporting Donbas separatists and will return Crimea to Ukraine.
After meetings with President Trump, Defense Minister Jim Mattis, National Security Advisor John Bolton and Pompeo, Volcker noted that they all follow a unified strategy towards Ukraine.
Answering a question about whether the issue of providing lethal assistance is still being considered, Volcker clearly stated: "Ukraine is waging war on its own territory. Every week on the Ukrainian territory Ukrainian servicemen who defend the territory of their country perish. It's about self-defense of the state ".
"Ukraine has good military forces that have been substantially modernized since 2014, and it produces most of the defense equipment itself, but there are some gaps," he added.. "And on the part of Ukraine's friends and allies, it would be perfectly reasonable to provide it with weapons to fill these gaps".
"There are no more restrictions on this," Volcker said.. - The idea of ??blocking the supply of weapons to Ukraine is no longer relevant. And it is advisable to ask the question: what does Ukraine need for self-defense? ".