Ukraine started the process of the heavy weapons withdrawal from the demarcation line in Donbas according to the Minsk agreements (February 12, 2015).
The OSCE Special Monitoring Mission has schedules for the gradual withdrawal of heavy weapons by the pro-Russian Forces and the Ukrainian Armed Forces but they are not coordinated or jointly agreed.
The OSCE’s Michael Bociurkiw noted that there are cases of violating the ceasefire by pro-Russian terrorists:
“What we saw was more calm, happy to report that, but still, we saw a range of ceasefire violations ranging from, still, rocket launcher systems’ fire, to artillery fire, to small arms fire,” he said.
The Joint Staff stated that in case of open attacks the withdrawl will be corrected:
“This is the first step towards withdrawal of the heavy weapons. It will be conducted exclusively under monitoring and verification of the OSCE,” the Joint Staff underlined and added: “In case of attacks, the withdrawal schedule will be corrected. Ukrainian troops are in complete assembly for defense of the country.”
