Lugansk People’s Republic Completes Troops Pullout Near Ukraine's Zolote Town

The self-proclaimed Lugansk People's Republic completed the pullback of troops and military equipment in the military zone in the area of Zolote, according to people's militia headquarters.

LUGANSK (Sputnik) — The self-proclaimed Lugansk People's Republic carried out the withdrawal of troops and military equipment near the town of Zolote in Ukraine's southeast, people's militia headquarters said Saturday.

On September 21, the Trilateral Contact Group on the settlement of the Ukrainian crisis that comprises Russia, Ukraine and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) concluded a framework agreement in Minsk to pull government troops and local militia apart at three locations in eastern Ukraine, including Zolote.

"Lugansk People’s Republic completed the pullback of troops and military equipment in the [military] zone in the area of Zolote," people's militia told RIA Novosti.

In February 2015, a peace deal was signed between Ukraine’s conflicting sides in the Belarusian capital of Minsk, after talks of the Normandy Four countries, comprising Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany.

The accord stipulates a full ceasefire, weapons withdrawal from the line of contact in eastern Ukraine, an all-for-all prisoner exchange and constitutional reforms, which would give a special status to the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk people’s republics.

Kiev launched a special military operation in Ukraine’s southeast in April 2014, after local residents refused to recognize the new Ukrainian authorities, which came to power as a result of a coup.