VIENNA, December 16 (Sputnik) – The Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) has received information from a Russian chief of staff at the Joint Centre for Control and Co-ordination (JCCC) in Ukraine that the self-proclaimed people's republics of Donetsk and Luhansk (DPR, LPR) have started withdrawing large caliber weapons from the country's southeast.
"The Russian chief of staff said that the "LPR" had started to withdraw heavy weapons between Trokhizbenka (40km [or 25 miles] North-West of Luhansk) and Novokyivka (25km [15 miles]East of Luhansk), and the "DPR" between Pyshevyk (84km [52 miles] South of Donetsk) and Hranitne (63km [39 miles]South-East of Donetsk)," the SMM said in a Ukraine situation report, released late Monday.
OSCE monitors were also presented with two letters, dated December 9 and December 11, where LPR and DPR authorities confirmed their readiness to withdraw large caliber weaponry in accordance with the Minsk memorandum. The letters were signed by both Ukrainian and Russian generals, according to the SMM.
LPR and DPR have been involved in an ongoing confrontation with the Kiev forces, which have launched a military operation in the regions over local residents" refusal to recognize Ukraine's new government, which came to power after a coup in February.
Representatives of the self-proclaimed republics signed a ceasefire agreement with Kiev during a September meeting in Minsk, attended by OSCE and Russian representatives.
A memorandum signed two weeks later in the same month specified the ceasefire's implementation and included the creation of a buffer zone in eastern Ukraine and the withdrawal of heavy weapons along the line of contact between independence fighters and Kiev forces in the region.
The SMM, deployed in Ukraine in March, has been closely monitoring the situation in the conflict areas, where numerous ceasefire violations have been reported from both sides.
