ANKARA
The Ukrainian government will withdraw heavy weaponry from separatist-held eastern Ukraine only if the truce agreed in Minsk is fully implemented, Ukraine's defense minister has said.
Stepan Poltarak said on Wednesday that fighting had decreased significantly on the eastern front and an agreement had been reached with separatists on establishing a line of separation.
A military spokesperson said one Ukrainian soldier had been wounded over the past 24 hours and pro-Russian separatists concentrated in the southeast province of Mariupol had made several attacks.
Meanwhile, Eduard Basurin, a military official from the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic said 196 items of heavy weaponry had been withdrawn on Wednesday and 180 others would also be pulled out.
A cease-fire was signed between government forces and pro-Russian separatists in Belarus' capital Minsk on Feb. 12, which included the withdrawal of heavy weaponry from combat areas, the withdrawal of all foreign-armed formations and release of all hostages and unlawfully detained persons, as well as political reforms and decentralization in the eastern Ukrainian regions.
More than 5,300 people have been killed and 12,200 others injured in eastern Ukraine since mid-April last year in the ongoing conflict, according to the UN high commissioner for human rights.
