READ MORE:OSCE mission gets access to Debaltsevo in E. Ukraine, Kiev and militia swap prisoners
Ukrainian Army and Donbass forces have agreed to remove heavy weapons from the conflict zone, Eduard Basurin, deputy commander of the DPR's Defense Ministry's corps, said on Sunday.
“Today we’ve done preparatory work. Tomorrow is a holiday [Defender of the Fatherland Day], and starting from [February] 24 the process of heavy weapons pullout will begin,” Basurin said, as cited by the Donetsk news agency.
Ukrainian General Aleksandr Rozmaznin told AFP: “The papers have been signed to begin withdrawing heavy weapons all along the frontline.”
The process is set to be completed by March 7 under the terms of the truce.
READ MORE: Terrified Debaltsevo residents leave shelters after Kiev troops’ pullout
OSCE monitors are now waiting for the documented evidence of the pullout, such as inventory lists, routes and locations of concentration of the weapons. However, they won’t observe the process itself.
Военная и гуманитарная катастрофа в Дебальцево // Disaster in Debaltsevo https://t.co/MWgZYFZnPB A.Borodulin © AFP http://ift.tt/19XEk0N
— Андрей Бородулин (@aa_borodulin) February 22, 2015
“A special monitoring mission of the OSCE has been monitoring displacements of the heavy weapons for five months already,” the head of the Ukrainian OSCE mission, Ertugrul Apakan said in a statement.
Despite the truce, backed by the “Normandy Four”, sporadic shelling has been continuing, though not as intense as in January. On Sunday, several people were killed in an explosion in the center of Kharkov during a 500-strong peace march.
On February 12, the leaders of Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany rubber-stamped the long awaited peace deal in Minsk. To end the conflict that has already taken some 5,600 lives, according to the latest UN estimates, they introduced measures, such as the ceasefire commenced February 15, a pullout of heavy weapons, and constitutional reform in Ukraine by the end of the year.
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