Deadline to start weapons pullback missed: Separatists say have no 'moral right' to leave Debaltseve
Ukrainian government troops and Russia-backed militants failed Tuesday to start pulling back heavy weaponry from the front line in eastern Ukraine as a deadline passed to do so. Militants refuse to stop fighting for the town of Debaltseve, a strategically important transportation hub, claiming it is their ‘internal territory’.
Under a cease-fire agreement negotiated by the leaders of Ukraine, Russia, Germany and France last week, Kyiv’s troops were to withdraw heavy weapons from the current frontline on Tuesday while the separatists were expected to pull back from the line as it existed in September, when the previous ceasefire agreement was signed.
The security zone separating the warring parties must be at least 50km wide for artillery over 100mm caliber, 70km for regular multiple rocket launchers and 100km for heavier weapons with a longer range, like Tochka-U ballistic missiles, the document stated.
Both sides indicated Monday, however, that they would begin the pullout only after the other party does so.
The Ukrainian army will not start to withdraw heavy artillery until shelling is completely ceased, Major-General Oleksandr Rozmaznin told Ukrainian television’s channel Hromadske.tv.
“Fire is not ceased, as the representatives of illegal armed groups have too much military equipment, taken from the neighboring country,” Ukrinform quotes the military official as saying.
Rozmaznin also said that on Tuesday he would personally inspect the observance of the ceasefire in Debaltseve direction together with the OSCE and would try to get to Debaltseve with the representatives of the special monitoring mission.
Asked about plans to carry out the agreement, Denis Pushilin, a leader of the so called Donetsk people’s republic, told Reuters: “We are ready at any time, we have everything ready for a mutual withdrawal. We will not do anything unilaterally – that would make our soldiers targets.
They cannot ‘morally’ stop fighting for control of a town in east Ukraine where they have encircled government troops despite a peace deal, he added.
“We do not have the right (to stop fighting for Debaltseve). It’s even a moral thing. It’s internal territory,” Pushilin said in the separatist stronghold of Donetsk. “We have to respond to fire, to work on destroying the enemy’s fighting positions.”
At the same time, the intensity of shelling of the Ukrainian military positions in southeast Ukraine has decreased, a spokesperson for the anti-terrorist operation told news agency Interfax-Ukraine.
“Over the night into February 17 there was an insignificant decrease in the number of attacks against Ukrainian army positions in the anti-terrorist operation zone. Concurrently, terrorists have focused on the Debaltseve area,” Anatoliy Stelmakh said at a briefing on Tuesday.
Separatists have focused on the Debaltseve area where it launched 15 attacks against Ukrainian positions overnight. Grad rockets were fired against Ukrainian positions 21 times, artillery weapons five times, mortars and grenades 19 times overnight, he said.
“The number of attacks and their territory once again show that the enemy is trying hard to seize the city of Debaltseve. However, the ATO forces have not lost a single position over the past 24 hours. Ukrainian soldiers want peace but they won’t surrender their land,” Stelmakh stressed.
