The Defense Ministry of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) has not registered any withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from the contract line despite the promises of Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, Spokesman of the Ministry Eduard Basurin said on Thursday.
“Despite Poroshenko’s promises to create a 30-km demilitarized area all along the contact line and to withdraw Ukrainian troops from the conflict zone, we have registered no such steps on part of Ukraine,” Basurin said.
The Donetsk News Agency quotes him as saying that on the contrary, the Ukrainians are deploying more heavy weapons on the contact line.
As was reported by EADaily , on Wednesday the Ukrainian president instructed his representatives to the Contact Group to sign an agreement to create a 30-km buffer zone in Donbass. “I have instructed our representatives to sign an agreement with their OSCE and Russian counterparts to create a 30-km buffer zone, to withdraw tanks and artillery and to cease any fire in Severodonetsk, Lisichansk and Popasnaya,” Poroshenko said.
On July 21, the Contact Group approved the text of an agreement on gradual withdrawal of tanks and heavy weapons from the contact line. The defense ministries of the Donetsk and Lugansk people’s republics have already done this on a unilateral basis.
