Donetsk to Hold Back on Withdrawal Sites – DPR Leader

The leader of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic Alexander Zakharchenko will provide information about the exact location of the heavy weaponry being withdrawn from the line of contact in eastern Ukraine only after the Kiev forces have done the same.

Alexander Zakharchenko said Thursday the Ukrainian military command told him it was not going to inform him about where exactly it will station its big guns being pulled out from the line of fire.

“The Ukrainian military said in a statement today it was not going to tell us where its units are going to be stationed. Then why should we do this?” Zakharchenko was quoted as saying by the Donetsk news agency.

Earlier on Thursday it became known that the Donetsk People’s Republic had withdrawn 90 percent of its heavy weaponry from the line of contact.

Meanwhile, the Ukrainian military said the Kiev army had begun the first stage of weapons pullback.

The Donetsk People’s Republic and the Luhansk People’s Republic announced that they had started to pull back weapons last week, while Kiev forces refused to follow suit citing the unstable ceasefire regime in the area.

Under the Minsk peace accord worked out by the leaders of Russia, Ukraine, Germany and France, the sides to the Ukrainian conflict committed to implement a ceasefire on February 15 and withdraw heavy weaponry from the line of contact.

Under the deal, the withdrawal is scheduled to start no later than on the second day after the ceasefire came into force and is to conclude within 14 days.