In this file photo, Ukrainian medical servicemen stand on an armoured personnel carriers after they carried wounded servicemen to hospital in Ukraine-controlled town of Avdiivka, in Donetsk region on January 30, 2017. (ALEKSEY FILIPPOV / AFP)

Ukraine pushed for progress to end the conflict with Russian-backed separatists over its easternmost regions as the latest ceasefire took effect after dozens of unsuccessful attempts.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy won last year’s elections on a promise to end the war that has killed more than 13,000 people since it began with Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea and support for rebels who have seized swathes of Ukraine’s eastern Luhansk and Donetsk regions

President Volodymyr Zelensky won last year’s elections on a promise to end the war that has killed more than 13,000 people since it began with Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea and support for rebels who have seized swathes of Ukraine’s eastern Luhansk and Donetsk regions.

A peace accord signed by Ukraine, Russia, Germany and France in Belarus’s capital in 2015 was never implemented, prompting the US and the European Union to impose economic sanctions against Moscow. With shelling and skirmishes continuing between the two sides, Ukraine is no closer to regain control over its border with Russia.

Zelensky had a phone conversation with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Sunday to discuss additional measures “to support ceasefire”, weapon and personnel withdrawal, release of Ukrainians detained in Crimea, Russia and rebel-held territories.

“Ukraine’s army has been protecting the country from Russian military aggression for the seventh year,” Volodymyr Kravchenko, the commander of Ukrainian forces, said in a televised briefing on Monday. 

“Along with that, the forces must ensure a full and comprehensive ceasefire under orders from the country’ top political leadership. Ensuring the implementation of political agreements, the army gives opportunity to politicians to achieve impetus in a peace process,” he added.

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“I believe that all parties - Ukraine, France, Germany and Russia - will sign it, and from the 27th, I believe the time may come when there will be a permanent cease-fire,” Zelensky said last week. “Ukraine is fulfilling its part of the Minsk agreements, and the whole world sees it. The other party must also demonstrate willingness to comply with them.”

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Zelensky met with Putin in Paris eight months ago to revive talks. They were supposed to continue discussing holding elections in the disputed territories in April in Berlin, but those efforts were delayed indefinitely as the agreed protocols were not implemented amid the coronavirus crisis.

Rebels violated the ceasefire almost immediately after it started at midnight Kyiv time while Ukrainian army stuck to the ceasefire deal as the shelling did not threaten its troops, Kravchenko said.