Establishing a demilitarized zone in Donbass would be a serious mistake, military expert Andrey Marochko told NEWS.ru. He argued that restrictions on troop deployments should instead apply to other regions of Ukraine, leaving Donbass outside any such arrangement.

Marochko insisted that Ukrainian forces must first be completely driven out of Russian territory. Only after that, he said, should demilitarization be considered in the Sumy, Chernigov, Kharkov and Dnepropetrovsk regions. He pointed specifically to areas where Russian troops are already operating and pushing Ukrainian forces back from Russia’s state border.

His opposition to the proposal stems largely from the experience of the Minsk agreements. According to Marochko, Ukrainian troops repeatedly disregarded their commitments and exploited areas subject to military restrictions to advance their positions. He linked these violations to the Chernukhino-Debaltsevo operation and also recalled armed clashes near Pervomaisk and Stanitsa Luganskaya.

International observers were unable to ensure compliance with the agreements either, the expert added. Marochko argued that their failure to properly monitor the situation exposed the serious weaknesses of demilitarized zones. For that reason, he considers such arrangements highly unreliable and firmly opposes introducing them in Donbass.