Ukraine cease-fire finally takes hold
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UKRAINIAN troops towed artillery away from the front line in the east yesterday, a move that amounted to recognizing that a cease-fire meant to take effect on February 15 was holding at last.
The military showed reporters seven or eight guns being towed away from the front at the village of Paraskoviyvka north of the government stronghold of Artemivsk. Earlier, journalists saw a larger convoy of up to 40 vehicles also towing guns away from the front.
The move was Kiev’s most direct step to acknowledge that the cease-fire was finally holding, a week after suffering one of the worst defeats of the war at the hands of rebels who had initially ignored the cease-fire to launch a major advance.
The pro-Russian rebels, who committed to the truce after their successful offensive, have been pulling back heavy weapons for two days, but Kiev had until now held back from implementing the withdrawal, arguing that fighting had not yet ceased.
However, the army reported no fatalities at the front for a second straight day yesterday, the first time no troops have been killed since long before the truce brokered by France and Germany was meant to take effect.
The withdrawal of artillery is “point 2” of the peace agreement reached in the Belarus capital Minsk, so beginning it amounts to an acknowledgement that “point 1” — the cease-fire itself — is being observed.
“Today, Ukraine has begun the withdrawal of 100-millimeter guns from the line of confrontation,” the military said in a statement, saying the step would be monitored by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
It said it reserved the right to alter the schedule of withdrawal “in the event of any attempted offensive.”
Journalists in rebel-held Donetsk said they had heard no artillery at night although the occasional distant blast or gunshot could be heard during the day.
Yesterday, rebels brought Ukrainian prisoners of war to the ruins of the airport north of the town to recover the bodies of fellow Ukrainian troops, left buried in the wreckage since the terminal was captured in January.
Rebels carried out controlled explosions to blast holes through walls inside the ruined terminal and sent prisoners down a ladder where the floor had collapsed.
Three dead bodies still lay at the site out of five that had been recovered from the debris the previous day. Prisoners said they were searching for three more they believed were still buried.
The commander of the separatist “Sparta” battalion, going by the nom de guerre “Motorola,” said the prisoners had been assigned the task because “it’s not our job to recover dead bodies, it’s our job to make them.”
“They take their comrades out to return them to their moms and dads. Did they think we would feed them for free?”
The airport is a totemic battlefield for both sides. Ukrainian troops had held out there for months until the rebels assaulted it after abandoning a previous cease-fire agreed in September.
The rebels had ignored the new truce last week to launch an advance that led to one of the biggest battles of the war.
But since capturing the strategic town of Debaltseve, where they said the truce did not apply, they have emphasized they now intend to abide by it.
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