The General Staff of Ukraine has drafted documents on the start of the Joint Forces Operation in the Donbas. The documents are awaiting ratification by President Petro Poroshenko, as announced by Yuriy Bobrov, spokesperson for the General Staff’s legal support office, as reported by the Ukrainski Novini (Ukrainian News) Agency.

“The beginning and end of the actions to ensure national defense, the repelling and deterrence of the Russian Federation’s armed aggression in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, will be determined by the sole decision of the supreme commander of the Ukrainian Armed Forces,” he said. He also noted that the drafts of these documents have been prepared, and that they will be accepted and implemented “at a certain time”.

Bobrov admitted that the Anti-Terrorist Operation (ATO) would not end immediately with the start of the Joint Forces Operation in the Donbas. He pointed out that the Anti-Terrorist Center of the Security Service of Ukraine may consider it necessary to carry out the ATO in the future too.
Chief of Ukraine’s General Staff Viktor Muzhenko said on February 22 that the Ukrainian army intends to change the format of warfare in eastern Ukraine. “The ATO will be concluded, and we will transition to the Joint Forces Operation,” he said. Muzhenko explained that in this way the Ukrainian government was striving to attain a “clear structure of the control system, hierarchy of certain forces and the means of military leadership”. In order to do this, a single Donbas combat headquarters was created, he added.

In February this year, Poroshenko signed the bill On the Reintegration of the Donbas. According to the bill, the regions of the Donetsk and Luhansk provinces not controlled by Kyiv are recognized as “occupied by Russia”. The document stipulates that the Ukrainian government has the right to take the necessary actions, including military actions, in order to oppose the “aggression”. 

  Donbas, Ukraine

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