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Two security signals as 2020 began
Summary
A prisoner exchange in Donbas and a Russian missile announcement framed the final days of 2019.
What did the regional security picture look like on 1 January 2020? It was shaped by two developments from the closing days of the previous year.
On 29 December 2019, the Ukrainian government and separatist rebels exchanged prisoners in the war in Donbas. The swap followed the "all identified for all identified" formula, which had been agreed at peace talks in Paris earlier that month.
Two days earlier, on 27 December 2019, Russia's Ministry of Defence announced the first deployment of the Avangard hypersonic glide vehicle, calling it a "landmark event". President Vladimir Putin said its top speed was over Mach 20 and that it put Russia's military ahead of all other nations.
The two items sat side by side as the new year opened: a negotiated exchange tied to the Paris talks on the conflict in eastern Ukraine, and a Russian claim of a new weapons capability.
