Ukraine starts the Operation of Joint Forces in the Donbas
The Anti-terrorist Operation (ATO) officially ended and the Operation of Joint Forces or OJF has begun on April 30. The change in format was mandated by the law for the reintegration of the Donbas.
From now on, all powers to regulate the situation in a war zone in the east of Ukraine are conferred on the Joint Operational Headquarters instead of the ATO headquarters. The press-service of the ATO headquarters announced the termination of the operation and thanked journalists for their cooperation and objective media reporting.
Volunteer Roman Donik published on Facebook the list of settlements in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions that are part of the war zone, in accordance with the new rules that came with the launch of the OJF.
"All other settlements along the borders with the Kharkiv and Dnipropetrovsk regions are in the ‘security zone.’ Nothing changes for them until the commander of the Joint Forces Operation gives a specific order. The OJF Command will announce all restrictions and establish ‘prohibited access’ in advance,” Donik noted.
On February 24, the law "On the peculiarities of State policy on ensuring Ukraine's State sovereignty over the temporarily occupied territories in Donetsk and Luhansk regions" entered into force. Pursuant to the law, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine drafted the documents that would establish the OJF. At the end of April, due to the completion of the ATO in the Donbas, the procedure for crossing the demarcation line was changed.
The ATO started in April 2014. Soon after his election, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said that the anti-terrorist operation would not last long but the invasion of the regular forces of the Russian Federation prevented Ukraine from regaining control of the eastern part of the Donbas.