Ukraine cease-fire remains fragile
Print Edition
AFTER more than four months of bloodshed, a cease-fire in Ukraine’s rebellious east largely held back fighting yesterday, but appeared fragile as both sides claimed the other had violated the agreement.
A statement from Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko’s appeared to make reference to the cease-fire’s tentativeness, saying that he and Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed steps “for giving the cease-fire a stable character” in a telephone conversation yesterday.
But, it said, both leaders assessed the cease-fire as having been “fulfilled as a whole.”
Colonel Andriy Lysenko, a spokesman for Ukraine’s national security council, said rebels had fired at Ukrainian forces on 10 occasions after the cease-fire was to take effect, but all the incidents he detailed were on Friday night.
In Donetsk, the largest city controlled by the Russian-backed separatists, the night passed quietly, but Alexander Zakharchenko, the top separatist leader from Donetsk, told the Russian news agency RIA Novosti that the truce was violated with two rounds of shelling in the town of Amvrosiivka, about 50 kilometers to the southeast.
“At this time the cease-fire agreement is not being fully observed,” he said.
Lysenko said Ukrainian forces were observing the truce and suggested Zakharchenko’s claim was a provocation.
Ukraine had received information that the rebels on Friday “were preparing a press conference for today (in which) one of the points was the condemnation of the Ukrainian military for violation of the cease-fire,” Lysenko said.
Earlier yesterday, the mayor’s office in Donetsk said there had been no reports of shooting or shelling there although some shelling had been heard late Friday afternoon. The city council of the rebel-held Luhansk, which had endured fighting for weeks, also reported a quiet night.
Ukraine, Russia and the Kremlin-backed separatists signed the cease-fire deal on Friday in Minsk, the Belarusian capital.
The negotiators also agreed on the release of all prisoners, the withdrawal of heavy weaponry and the delivery of humanitarian aid to eastern Ukraine.
If the cease-fire holds, it will be a landmark achievement for both sides of the conflict.
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