Ceasefire violations and a court sentence: Ukraine on 1 March 2021
A look back at what Ukraine's public record showed in the days around 1 March 2021, from the Luhansk front line to an Odesa courtroom.
What was the situation in Ukraine's regions on 1 March 2021? The reports available from the preceding days point to two developments: continuing violations of the ceasefire in eastern Ukraine and a sentence handed down in Odesa.
On 26 February 2021, Ukraine reported 10 ceasefire violations in the Luhansk region, as part of the war in Donbass. The fighting there stemmed from the conflict between armed Russian separatist groups, backed by Russian regular forces, and the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Peace talks in Minsk, involving the Trilateral Contact Group of Ukraine, Russia and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), produced the Minsk agreements, which sought to end that war. The first of them, the Minsk Protocol, was signed in September 2014.
On 23 February 2021, the Prymorskyi District Court in Odesa sentenced activist Serhiy Sternenko to seven years and three months in prison, with confiscation of half of his property.
Together, the two reports show a country where the war in the east was still producing daily reports of ceasefire violations, and where a court ruling in a southern city was a matter of public attention as March began.
