Ukrainian foreign minister: Monitoring 30-day ceasefire should include "international component"

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha has said that an effective mechanism for objective monitoring of the 30-day ceasefire should be ensured, and this should include an "international component".

Source: Sybiha in an interview with RBC-Ukraine

Quote: "We really need to have an effective mechanism of objective control [over the observance of the ceasefire – ed.]. It should presumably also have an international component. The question here is who can carry out such monitoring because there is definitely a national component; it cannot happen without us, as it is our territory. That is why Ukraine is crucial here in terms of controlling and monitoring the observance of the ceasefire.

As I have already said, we have already started forming a national team that will develop modalities and algorithms to ensure this process."

Details: Sybiha noted that ceasefire monitoring mechanisms usually operate under the supervision of the UN and OSCE, but given Ukraine's negative experience in 2014-2022, "we need to carefully discuss the possibility and feasibility of implementing such an international component as an element of possible monitoring of the temporary ceasefire".

"Therefore, this is also a subject for discussion with our European counterparts and with the American side, and we are currently conducting these consultations," Sybiha said.

Background:

• Following talks in Saudi Arabia on 11 March, Ukraine announced its readiness to introduce a 30-day ceasefire if Russia also adheres to it.
• On 13 March, Russian leader Putin said that Russia had agreed with the proposal to end combat actions in Ukraine, but that this should lead to a lasting peace.
• Putin said that many questions need to be answered as part of such a ceasefire. In particular, whether Ukraine will continue to mobilise people and receive weapons, how the issues of control and verification will be resolved, and who will determine who has violated what along the 2,000-kilometre front line.
• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Putin was putting forward additional conditions for a halt to the hostilities, which indicates that he does not want to stop fighting.
• US President Donald Trump said he plans to speak with Putin on 18 March to discuss ending the war in Ukraine.

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