Mary: <start cut off> just, disappeared overnight. I remember my-
Vic: So they occupied it [Sievierodonetsk] in 2014, 15?
Mary: Yes, it was occupied. Basically, um, yeah! It just happened overnight. People woke up in the morning and the Russians were gone. So, that’s a great legend: you can wake up in the morning and the Russians are gone!
Vic: Like, why did they suddenly leave it?
Mary: I am not quite sure. Minsk Accords, they withdrew back to their defensible position. So, I don’t know.
Vic: Did they like leave stuff?
Mary: No, they withdrew.
Vic: Huh.
Mary: And they withdrew pretty far. They withdrew past the river. So, they kept the river as a border.
Vic: And they were completely out of Sievierodonetsk until the full-scale invasion?
Mary: Yes.
Vic: So your monitoring was monitoring, like, where they were staying at their defensible position?
Mary: Yes! The line of contact. In fact, that’s a very good question. I’m going to look into it. Why? <laughs> Was it to do with the Minsk Accords? Maybe it was to do with the agreement on what the contact line was, I’m not sure. But I will check, and I will get back to you.
Vic: Thank you.
[Pause while Mary searches online]
Mary: <start cut off> After liberation, it became the central city of the region instead of Luhansk. So it’s only really three months, May, June, July, that they had it. But it doesn’t say why they withdrew. I don’t know. What caused the withdrawal?
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