Eastern Ukraine’s heavy weaponry is there to stay

Both Kiev and eastern Ukraine’s separatists are refusing to withdraw their heavy weapons from the demarcation line in the Donbas, as mandated by the peace agreement signed in Minsk last week.

On February 16, the spokesperson for the Ukrainian military said rebels have continued their attacks, despite the start of the ceasefire at midnight on February 15. Representatives from the breakaway republic of Donetsk have made similar announcements, saying the Minsk deal’s conditions for removing heavy weapons haven’t been met.

“We’ll begin withdrawing our equipment from the frontline, once we get a signal that the Ukrainian side has started,” announced Donetsk’s separatist defense minister, Vladimir Kononov.

“The condition for removing heavy weapons from the frontline is compliance with the first point of of the Minsk agreement: the ceasefire. We’ve been shelled 112 times, already—not what we would call a ceasefire—so we’re not currently prepared to withdraw our heavy weapons,” said a Ukrainian military official.

The withdrawal of heavy weapons is one of the steps in the peace plan brokered in Minsk last week, February 12, by the leaders of Russia, Ukraine, France, and Germany.

The peace agreement was signed by the so-called “Contact Group,” which included representatives of the breakaway republics in Donetsk and Lugansk.

According to the peace deal, both sides of the conflict agreed to cease fire by midnight on February 15, and begin withdrawing their heavy weaponry within the next 48 hours. Each side then has two weeks to remove all its artillery from the frontlines.

Read more: A short recap of the 16-hour negotiations that just wrapped up in Minsk