Donetsk Rebels Pledge to Complete Heavy Weapons Withdrawal Sunday

Pro-Russian rebels said to be withdrawing heavy weapons from the frontline, near Donetsk, eastern Ukraine, 27 February 2015. Photo EPA/BGNES

The self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) in Ukraine plans to complete on Sunday the withdrawal of heavy weapons from the front line as required by the latest Minsk agreement, ITAR-TASS reported.

“Today we are finalising the withdrawal,” Eduard Basurin, a representative of DPR’s  defence ministry told the news agency.

He added DPR was not receiving exact information about the withdrawal of heavy weapons by the Ukrainian government forces. The Ukrainian side was only giving general information that withdrawal continued without specifying either locations or the weapons being withdrawn, Basurin said.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said on Saturday that the separatists were continuing to shell locations in Ukraine in violation of the ceasefire deal. In a telephone conversation with US Vice President Joe Biden Poroshenko accused pro-Russian rebels of firing artillery shells near Donetsk, as well as the Azov Sea port city of Mariupol, which is still under Ukrainian government control.

According to the agreement achieved at the Normandy four talks in the Belarusian capital Minsk last month the pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine and Kiev government forces are to pull back heavy weapons to their sides of a 50-kilometre wide corridor straddling the engagement line.

 

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