Ukraine says to start weapon withdrawal if ceasefire holds two days

February 25, 2015

The Ukrainian military will start withdrawing heavy weapons from the front line in eastern regions not earlier than two days after the complete ceasefire, a government military spokesman said Tuesday.

"As soon as the insurgents observe the ceasefire for two days, it would be the signal to start the withdrawal," Andriy Lysenko told reporters during a media briefing.

He accused the pro-independence insurgents of violating the truce regime, saying that in the past 24 hours one government soldier was killed and seven others were wounded in rebel attacks.

Commenting on the reports about the insurgents' weaponry pullback from the front line, Lysenko said the rebel forces were "just relocating their weapons and regrouping their units" under the guise of withdrawal.

Earlier in the day, Eduard Basurin, a senior insurgent commander said their forces had begun a full-scale pullout of heavy weapons from the front line in accordance with a ceasefire plan.

The ceasefire deal, reached on Feb. 12 in Minsk, capital of Belarus, envisages that both sides are to withdraw their heavy weapons 25 to 70 km from the front line to create a buffer zone.

Under the agreement, both sides were meant to start withdrawing heavy weaponry from the battle area no later than two days after the start of a truce which came into force on Feb. 15.

The ceasefire deal helped to ease fighting in eastern regions, and the truce was largely holding in the recent days, despite sporadic violations.

Source: Xinhua

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