Ukraine has started withdrawing tanks and light artillery from the frontline in the eastern region of Luhansk in line with an agreement with Russian-backed separatists, Kiev’s military said yesterday.
Ukraine and separatist leaders agreed last week to extend a pull-back of weapons in eastern Ukraine, which rebels said could mean an “end to the war” with the Ukrainian government.
“Today at 11am in Luhansk region we began a simultaneous removal of T-64 and T-72 tanks and in some places anti-tank artillery D-48 and D-44 and... mortars,” military spokesman Ruslan Tkachuk said on Facebook. Ukraine has 360 tanks in the conflict zone and 1,400 armoured personnel carriers.
Tkachuk said the withdrawal had been agreed with representatives of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and should be completed within the next 14 days.
“This is an opportunity to do even more to stabilise and normalise the situation. It’s an opportunity both sides need to recognise and build upon,” Alexander Hug, deputy chief monitor of the OSCE mission to Ukraine said. A ceasefire is holding in eastern territories, with both sides reporting few or no violations.
Nevertheless the threat of renewed violence remains. Last week the OSCE said it had spotted a new kind of Russian weapons system in rebel-held territory, possible evidence of Moscow’s continued interest in Ukraine even as it focuses on Syria.
On Saturday, a senior rebel official for the self-proclaimed ‘Donetsk People’s Republic’ said separatist forces would begin withdrawing their weapons after Oct. 18 “on the condition that it is quiet”, the rebel website DAN reported.
OSCE spots a new kind of Russian weapons system in rebel-held territory
Fighting between Ukrainian government forces and the separatists in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions has killed more than 8,000 people since mid-April 2014. Russia denies Western and Kiev’s charges of direct involvement in the conflict.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said on Sunday Russia’s Vladimir Putin had promised to ask pro-Russian separatists to cancel elections planned in rebel-held territory in defiance of Kiev. Under terms of a peace agreement signed in Minsk in February, local elections were meant to be held in the separatist regions along with the rest of the former Soviet republic this autumn. But Kiev has since said they cannot take place in the east because of continued security problems there. The separatists, in response, scheduled their own ballot for October and November, angering Kiev which said it would not recognise the results.
“Putin promised to make every effort and to let us know no later than Tuesday that this decision [to cancel elections] will be taken,” Poroshenko said . The comments followed talks between the leaders of Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany, who met to discuss the Ukraine peace process.
French President Francois Hollande said it would take time to organise elections in eastern territories that respect international standards and the so-called Minsk peace process would run beyond its deadline, into next year.