Trends of Management of the East-Ukrainian Armed Conflict between 2014 and 2022: Consensus-Seeking during the Zelenskiy and Poroshenko Era

Abstract

Russia’s de facto aggression against Ukraine has elevated the armed conflict from a relatively low to a high level of intensity, as well as broadened its territorial scope, and dimensioned the status quo from the previously frozen conflict to that of a conventional war. This development signifies an end to an era: the eight-year period known as the Minsk process, which used to favor negotiations as a means of solution has now ended. The focus, from compromise-seeking has shifted to the military solution, which not only endangers Ukraine’s territorial integrity, but also throws a challenge to the international peace and security architecture. The question rightly arises, what potential have we lost with the failure of the series of negotiations in Minsk?