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What the year's first day inherited from December
Summary
A look back at the security picture on 1 January 2020, shaped by a prisoner swap in Donbas and a Russian missile announcement.
What was the security picture in Ukraine and its neighbourhood on 1 January 2020? It was framed by two developments from the final days of 2019, one on the ground and one in strategic weapons.
On 29 December 2019, the Ukrainian government and separatist rebels exchanged prisoners in the war in Donbas. The exchange followed the "all identified for all identified" formula agreed during peace talks in Paris earlier that month. The swap was a concrete outcome of those talks, and it was the most recent step in the process as the new year began.
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". According to President Vladimir Putin, its top speed exceeds Mach 20, and he said it puts Russia's military ahead of all other nations.
The two items sit in different categories: one concerns a regional conflict and the negotiated handling of its prisoners, the other a strategic weapon announced by Moscow. Together they marked the final days of 2019 and the starting point for 1 January 2020.
