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What the last days of 2019 signalled on security
Summary
A prisoner exchange in Donbas and a Russian hypersonic announcement marked the closing days of the year.
What did security news look like on 31 December 2019? The final days of the year brought two developments, one aimed at easing the war in Donbas and one centred on Russian weapons.
On 29 December 2019, the Ukrainian government and separatist rebels exchanged prisoners under the "all identified for all identified" formula. The formula had been agreed during peace talks in Paris earlier that month, so the exchange put an element of those talks into practice.
Two days earlier, on 27 December 2019, Russia's Ministry of Defence announced the first deployment of the Avangard hypersonic glide vehicle and called it a "landmark event". President Vladimir Putin said its top speed exceeded Mach 20 and that it put Russia's military ahead of all other nations.
Taken together, the two items show a year ending with a practical step in the Paris-agreed process alongside a public display of Russian military capability. Both were reported as they happened, and both stand as markers of where the security picture sat on 31 December 2019.
