Home › Security › What did Ukraine's Steinmeier formula decision mean?
What did Ukraine's Steinmeier formula decision mean?
Summary
A look back at the Minsk process as it stood on 4 October 2019, days after Ukraine agreed to the formula.
What had Ukraine just accepted in the Minsk process by 4 October 2019? On 1 October 2019, as reported at the time, Ukraine agreed to the so-called Steinmeier formula, a step within the Minsk Protocol framework for the war in Donbass.
The formula was aimed at two things: granting a special self-governing status to the Donbass, and organising elections there that would be validated by the OSCE and held according to Ukrainian law.
The Minsk framework
The Minsk agreements were a series of international agreements that sought to end the Donbas War, fought between armed Russian separatist groups, backed by Russian regular forces, and the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Peace talks were held in Minsk, Belarus, involving the Trilateral Contact Group on Ukraine, made up of representatives of Ukraine, Russia and the OSCE. The leaders of France and Germany mediated in the so-called Normandy Format.
The first Minsk Protocol, known as Minsk I, was signed in September 2014 by representatives of the Trilateral Contact Group. The then-leaders of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic and Luhansk People's Republic also signed it, without recognition of their status.
By 4 October 2019, therefore, Kyiv's agreement to the formula had placed special status and OSCE-validated elections under Ukrainian law at the centre of the Minsk discussion.
