KRAMATORSK, Ukraine — Nearly a month after the third successful round of mutual pullback of manpower and weapons on the front line of Russia’s war, Ukraine is still boiling with anger and confusion over this controversial move.
Numerous critics, on the streets and in social media, decry the Donbas disengagement as President Volodymyr Zelensky’s surrender of Ukrainian territory and yet another step towards capitulation to the Kremlin.
But the top commander of Joint Forces, Ukraine’s 40,000-strong military-police contingent deployed to the war front, rejects these apocalyptic prophecies as having very few in common with reality on the ground.
Lieutenant General Volodymyr Kravchenko told the Kyiv Post in an exclusive interview on Dec. 1 that the standing isn’t going anywhere — and will never give up defending Donbas.
