"It is possible to expand the Joint Control and Coordination Center to the international level including representatives of other countries of the "Normandy Four". However, key players should remain Ukraine and Russia as parties of the conflict, and independent international observers would fulfill the monitoring function," he said.

According to Martyniuk, such an expansion makes sense, since it will be difficult for Russians to blame the Ukrainian side for violations of the armistice, for not responding of the Ukrainian side of the JCCC on requests; international representatives could also see that the Russian side of the JCCC does not respond to requests and proposals of the Ukrainian side.

According to the expert, the expansion of the JCCC by means of involvement of representatives of international organizations is unlikely. According to him, such international organization could be, for example, the OSCE, which already has a special monitoring mission in the Donbass, but Russia can block any decision in this organization, because it should be adopted by consensus.

The head of the international programs of the Analytical Centre "Strategy XXI" suggests that the Russians "will not return, at least this year, to work in the JCCC". In his opinion, the Kremlin is now using a walkout of the JCCC as one more leverage to pressure Ukraine, including for pushing Kyiv to cancel the innovation on the Ukrainian-Russian border - biometric control for Russian citizens. Using the violations by the militants of the cease-fire regime and the humanitarian threat to the population, Russia also shows that "nothing can be done without it", while accusing Ukraine of violating the Minsk agreements, Martyniuk added.