Russian forces and their separatist allies are using the cease-fire to relocate heavy weapons and train their proxies, Ukrainian government military spokesman Andriy Lysenko says.
“Militants only
imitate the withdrawal of heavy artillery,” Lysenko told reporters
at a daily briefing on March 10. “They use the cease-fire regime to
reinforce their units, getting more of engineering and military
equipment, manpower and ammunition.”
Pulling heavy
artillery back is one of the points of the Minsk peace agreement
signed on Feb. 12. But although there have been signs of movement,
there is doubt that the gear is actually being pulled away as agreed.
NATO supreme allied
commander in Europe General Philip Breedlove said on March 8 that
heavy artillery is being moved on both sides of the contact line.
“But we do not
know what’s happening to the artillery on the east side of contact,
because the OSCE (Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe) observers have not been allowed to go and observe
that they are breaking down, that they are moving and where are they
moving to,” he said. “We see them moving, but we don’t know if
they are returning or simply repositioning for the next engagement.”
Lysenko said that
that Ukrainian army has already accomplished the pullout of the heavy
weapons, which started on Feb. 26. However, soldiers still have infantry weapons that can stop
heavy machinery.
“In case of the
militants’ attack, we will return all the armaments back to the
front line”, Lysenko told the reporters.
Defense minister of
the separatist Donetsk People’s Republi Vladimir Kononov
denied accusations of failure to stick to the Minsk agreements,
and said that the separatist forces have already pulled their heavy weapons back
from the contact line.
“We continue
military training deep inside our territory,” he told the Kyiv
Post. “It’s the Ukrainians who tried to attack our positions 10
times yesterday.”
According to
Lysenko, Russia-led insurgents fired at the Ukrainian forces 31
times, including five cases of artillery fire.
The OSCE, in its latest report on
the implementation of the “package of measures for the
Implementation of the Minsk agreements” as of March 8, reports that
the situation in Luhansk Oblast remains calm, but there is fighting in Donetsk Oblast and around the Donetsk airport and to
the east of Mariupol.
“On 7 March, in
the Donetsk region, the SMM (Special Monitoring Mission) monitored several convoys of Ukrainian
Armed Forces military hardware being moved away from the contact
line,” the OSCE report says. However, the SMM notes that it was denied access
to some territories by Ukrainian armed forces and the Donetsk People’s Reublic. The mission
has complained repeatedly in its reports about denial of access.
