Donbas Heavy Weaponry Pullout Could Be Resolved at Contact Group Talks

Source familiar with the course of the Tuesday Contact Group videoconference preparation said that the issue of heavy weaponry withdrawal from the line of contact between independence supporters and Kiev forces in southeastern Ukraine could be resolved during the talks.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – The issue of heavy weaponry withdrawal from the line of contact between independence supporters and Kiev forces in southeastern Ukraine (Donbas) could be resolved during the Tuesday Contact Group videoconference, a source familiar with the course of its preparation has told RIA Novosti.

According to the source, "on the results of these [Contact Group] talks the issue of the start of the pullout [of heavy artillery from the region] could be resolved". The Contact Group on Ukraine includes representatives from Kiev, the self-proclaimed people's republics of Donetsk and Luhansk (DPR and LPR), Russia and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).

Late on Monday, deputy commander of DPR militia Eduard Basurin told RIA Novosti that he had no information on the start of weaponry withdrawal. No reports of a pullout came during the night.

Earlier on Monday Ukrainian military spokesman Andriy Lysenko announced at a press briefing that Kiev was not ready to withdraw its heavy artillery from the conflict zone in the eastern regions of Ukraine.

Meanwhile Basurin confirmed the readiness of militias in southeastern Ukraine to withdraw heavy artillery if the Minsk ceasefire agreement is observed. Speaking to the Rossiya-24 TV channel the deputy commander stressed, however, that a full ceasefire would be difficult to implement.

The ceasefire between Kiev forces and independence supporters in eastern Ukraine was agreed at the February 12 Normandy format talks held in Minsk between the leaders of Ukraine, France, Germany and Russia. The deal stipulates that heavy weaponry is withdrawn from the line of contact between the conflicting sides in southeastern Ukraine within two weeks starting from February 17.

The ceasefire itself came into force on Sunday, February 15, at midnight (Kiev time). Later in the day, the head of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) to Ukraine announced that the truce was generally holding.

This is the second ceasefire agreed upon between Kiev forces and independence fighters. The first such agreement was reached during a Contact Group meeting in Minsk in September of last year, however, clashes continued in southeastern Ukraine through the end of 2014 and intensified at the start of 2015.