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Ukraine Preparing More Troop Withdrawals

Jamie Dettmer

   Hints of another exchange of prisoners, talk of a bilateral withdrawal
   of combat soldiers and heavy weaponry from the 450-kilometer frontline
   in Ukraine's east, and rising signs that Moscow and Kyiv are close to a
   deal on a new Russian gas-transit contract -- what's happening?

   Five-and-a-half years after the start of Russia's war in eastern
   Ukraine, "there is a sliver of hope that the fighting will stop," the
   English-language Kyiv Post newspaper editorialized Friday. The editors
   fear, though, the peace will be built on discord.

   A day earlier, the top military commander of the Ukrainian forces
   deployed in the eastern region of the Donbas, Gen. Volodymyr
   Kravchenko, told U.N. envoys he's currently laying down plans for a
   withdrawal from the frontline.

   "Such a task has been set by the Chief of General Staff of the Armed
   Forces of Ukraine [Ruslan Khomchak], the Minister of Defense [Andriy
   Zahorodniuk] and the Head of State [President Volodymyr Zelenskiy],"
   the general said at the September 18 meeting. "We are ready for this
   for the sake of making the lives of our citizens better," he said.

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