Kyiv has appointed pro-Ukraine refugees from the Russian-occupied Donetsk and Luhansk regions to represent those territories in the Minsk Contact Group, the forum that negotiates the implementation of the Minsk agreements.

For the first time in almost six years, pro-Ukraine delegates, acting on behalf of those territories, sat in the Minsk Contact Group’s session (held by video-conference) on June 9-10 and technically continuing today (June 15) (Ukrinform, June 9-15).

Russia’s proxies in Donetsk and Luhansk had, from 2014 until now, monopolized the representation of those territories in the Minsk Contact Group. They will remain entrenched there. Ukraine’s move, however, de-monopolizes those territories’ representation and explicitly challenges those proxies’ legitimacy.