Ukraine begins heavy weapons withdrawal

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Ukraine said Thursday that it has begun withdrawing heavy weapons from the front line in the country's east, injecting new hope into the latest peace agreement.
According to dpa, military spokesman Anatoliy Stelmakh said that the armed forces were withdrawing 100-millimetre artillery cannons along the entire front line, the Interfax Ukraine news agency reported.
The Defence Ministry in Kiev earlier announced the withdrawal, saying that it will be carried out only in the presence of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, OSCE.
The move comes ten days later than stipulated in the peace agreement signed on February 12 in Minsk. Ukraine initially refused to carry out the withdrawal, pointing to ceasefire violations by the Russia-backed separatists.
The Ukrainian Security Council said Wednesday that the situation had stabilized.
Council spokesman Andriy Lysenko said in Kiev that Ukrainian forces suffered no deaths and four injuries during the past 24 hours. It was the second day in a row with no fatalities.
The Russia-backed separatists said that they have no information that any Ukrainian withdrawal was being carried out. "This raises questions about their readiness to stop the bloodshed," separatist spokesman Eduard Basurin said according to the rebel-run Donetsk News Agency.
Alexander Zakharchenko, the head of the "Donetsk People's Republic," warned that the separatists might return their heavy weaponry to the front line if Ukraine does not begin its withdrawal by 7pm Moscow time (1600 GMT).
The rebels claim that they began withdrawing their heavy weapons unilaterally as early as Sunday. Basurin said that OSCE observers on Thursday monitored a separatist withdrawal in the Olenivka district south of Donetsk.
The OSCE, which is supposed to monitor the ceasefire, did not comment on Basurin's claims.
The mission's spokesman, Michael Bociurkiw, reiterated that the observers have not been able to verify any withdrawals and that both sides have yet to share information on the amount of weapons they possess and their locations.
He added that the observers were still unable to access some hot spots for security reasons and that there were delays at checkpoints manned by both sides.
"Unrestricted and safe access is not guaranteed yet," he said in Kiev.
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said that he was unhappy with the peace deal's implementation thus far and that it was now in a decisive phase.
"The separatists' activities are not being coordinated with the OSCE," he said in Berlin, adding that it might take "one generation" to achieve a political solution.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said that it welcomed Ukraine's announcement but criticized the OSCE's demands as unjustified because they do not appear in the Minsk agreement.
"The OSCE monitors are supposed to confirm that there are no heavy weapons in the given zones and should not make hasty announcements," the ministry said.
Ukraine and the West accuse Moscow of equipping and training the separatists and boosting their numbers with both volunteer fighters and regular soldiers from Russia.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that Russia has transferred more than 1,000 items of military equipment, including tanks and artillery systems. "They have to withdraw this equipment and stop supporting the separatists," he said during a visit to Rome.
He added that any attempts to further expand separatist-held territory would be an unacceptable ceasefire violation.
Also on Thursday, the separatists said that they uncovered some 30 bodies of Ukrainian soldiers under the rubble of Donetsk airport. Government forces gave up the airport to the separatists in January.
Almost 6,000 people have been killed in the conflict since last April, according to United Nations figures.

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