KIEV (Sputnik) – Ukrainian military forces have begun withdrawing artillery armed with less than 100mm caliber from the contact line with the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, Ukrainian special operations spokesman Leonid Matyukhin said Wednesday.
“Yes, the Ukrainian forces have begun the withdrawal, the process has started,” Matyukhin told RIA Novosti.
In April 2014 the Ukrainian Armed Forces started a military campaign to suppress Donbass residents who rejected the "legitimacy" of the new coup-imposed government and declared independent People's Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk.
Earlier in the day, Hasan Kaloyev, Russia’s representative in the Joint Center for Control and Coordination (JCCC) said the eastern Ukrainian Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) completed the pullout of artillery systems from the contact line.
The agreement was prepared in August by a security subgroup of the Trilateral Contact Group on Ukrainian reconciliation that comprises representatives from Ukraine, Russia and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).
However, clashes have never ceased completely.
