KYIV, Ukraine—Believe it or not, the ongoing impeachment drama in the United States wasn’t the biggest news story this week in Ukraine.
Rather, Ukrainians are focused on news much closer to home—the prospect of rejuvenated peace talks with Moscow to end the war in Ukraine’s embattled eastern Donbas region that has lasted five and a half years.
The news broke on Tuesday when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced his decision to accept the so-called Steinmeier Formula—a controversial measure to hold elections in the two so-called separatist territories in eastern Ukraine.
The plan was devised by German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier in 2016 when he was foreign minister, as a way to rejuvenate stalled Russo-Ukrainian peace talks.
Since taking office earlier this year, Zelenskyy has tried to resuscitate the so-called Normandy Format peace negotiation framework, which comprises representatives from Ukraine, Russia, Germany, and France. In turn, Moscow declared that Ukraine’s implementation of the Steinmeier Formula was a prerequisite for renewing those talks.
“Do we want the end of the war and the return of all Ukrainian territories? Yes,” Zelenskyy said Thursday in a nationally televised address. “Today, there is one platform where these issues can be discussed at the highest level. This is a meeting in the Normandy Format.”
Zelenskyy’s move sparked peaceful protests across Ukraine, including here in the capital city of Kyiv. War veterans in particular have been outspoken in their demand that Ukraine not back down from its long-held redline—elections will not go forward in the Donbas until all Russian troops have left the contested territory.
“As a veteran, I feel that all the achievements that were gained by our troops in this war are being traded for nothing, because based on p ..
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