Soon it will be half a year since Minsk 2 and the first year anniversary of Minsk 1 when Putin single-handedly decided together with his Kiev and Western partners that the Donbass referendum doesn't count

There are strong indications accumulating for at least half a year now that, instead of trying to "freeze" the conflict in Donbass, as many expected, Putin and the Kremlin went with Minsk 2 for a gradual, but steady war of Donbass' attrition by means of the Kiev junta at an official (DPR/LPR) rate of some 30 wounded soldiers a day (almost 1000 per month), which so far (up to a certain point) suits both Washington and Kiev just fine. To this effect, the Army of Novorosssiya is under orders ultimately coming from the Kremlin to defend itself only with a very prescribed and very limited range of weapons and options, which are radically inferior to and behind the freedom of action, shelling, attacks, and maneuver enjoyed by Kiev. Part of this deliberate inferior setup is the strict prohibition also coming from the Kremlin, which effectively prohibits the Army of Novorossiya to launch any offensive action or to improve its situation or change it for the better. Under these conditions, Russia is playing its "chess game" as if the Kremlin or the West is making moves from both sides of the chessboard.

Perfect Surkovian sophism, which accompanies the Kremlin's steady campaign to present a Nazi regime as its legitimate partner, while devaluing the national-liberation struggle of Donbass merely as a struggle for few local administrative reforms, is also expressed  in this concluding punch line from a today's article, which no one else could make up. It says that Minsk is "diplomats' illusion," which, as long as it exists, must be "fulfilled honestly and fully and with all the efforts."Moreover, the article admits that the illusion which "must be honestly and fully fulfilled" by all means is also what "is continuously destroying houses and killing soldiers and civilians."

Original quotation: "Пока действует мирный план «Минск-2», сторонам нужно приложить все силы, для того, чтобы выполнить его честно и в полном объеме; хотя история и говорит, что нынешний «как бы мир» на Украине в течение которого регулярно разрушаются дома, гибнут солдаты и мирные люди – это все-таки иллюзия дипломатов."