Kiev Retaining 16 Heavy Arms Systems in Line of Contact - Luhansk

According to the self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic's statement, Kiev has not pulled out 16 heavy artillery systems, including Grad, from the line of contact yet.

LUHANSK (Sputnik) – Eastern Ukraine’s Luhansk independence forces say they know of 16 heavy artillery systems that Kiev forces have not withdrawn from the line of contact, the head of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic’s people’s militia said Tuesday.

The heavy weapons pullout was a key point in the Minsk ceasefire agreement, signed by Ukraine and the self-proclaimed Luhansk and Donetsk People's Republics (LPR and DPR, respectively), last month.

“Near the populated area of Artyom and Petrovka there are hidden positions of up to 10 units of howitzers, and in the area of Popasny…there are two mobile artillery installations, near the populated area of Orekhovo…there are two Grad systems, and in the populated region of Troitskoe, there are also two Grad systems,” Sergei Kozlov told journalists.

Last week, Ukraine's special operations spokesman Anatoliy Steklmakh said that Kiev had withdrawn all heavy artillery from the line of contact.

Earlier, LPR and DPR spokespersons announced that they had completed heavy weaponry withdrawal as of the March 1 Minsk deal deadline.