E. Ukraine artillery withdrawal focus of Normandy quartet FMs meeting

The artillery pullout is part of the ceasefire deal struck in Minsk earlier in February.



The Donetsk militia has announced it is complying.



“Today at 9 am our units continued the pullback of heavy weaponry from the separation line," said Eduard Basurin, spokesman for the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, Tass news agency reported.

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He specified that some 96 D-30 howitzers are to be withdrawn from Debaltsevo, Gorlovka, Donetsk and Telmanovo

Militia units of the self-proclaimed Lugansk People’s Republic promised to follow suit at noon Tuesday.



"Today at 12 noon rocket artillery will be particularly withdrawn in the area of Debaltsevo," said a deputy commander of the Lugansk militia, Vitaly Kiselev.



OCSE could not so far confirm the withdrawal of heavy weaponry by the rebel forces.



Michael Bociurkiw, a spokesman for the OSCE observer mission in eastern Ukraine, said he could not comment until receiving monitors' reports at the end of the day, according to AP.

Paris #Ukraine talks have started: FMs #Steinmeier@LaurentFabius@PavloKlimkin+#Lavrov now convening #MinskAgreementhttp://ift.tt/1w6Jig9

— GermanForeignOffice (@GermanyDiplo) February 24, 2015

Kiev has meanwhile refused to start the pullback, blaming the rebels for ceasefire violations.



“Our positions are being shelled non-stop,” a spokesman for the military operation in eastern Ukraine, Anatoly Stelmakh, told RIA Novosti. “So the first stage is at a least a daylong ceasefire. Only then will we speak of some kind of weapons withdrawal.”



Ukrainian military spokesman Andrey Lysenko said two days of ceasefire were necessary for the Kiev troops to start heavy weaponry withdrawal.



The Donetsk and Lugansk militia denied accusations of non-compliance with the ceasefire. They say they are only responding to fire from Kiev troops.

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Apart from the artillery pullback, the Normandy Quartet may discuss the possibility of sending UN or EU peacekeepers into the conflict zone. Kiev said it plans to raise the issue.



"I’ll discuss the possibility and rationality of deploying this contingent in Donbass," Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin said on Monday, according to Tass.



Moscow has criticized a possible peacekeeping mission in eastern Ukraine as something that would undermine the Minsk ceasefire agreement.



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