Kiev promises to start pulling back armament in Donbass this week

The Ukrainian side says it is ready to start pulling back the armament from the contact line in Donbass as early as this week, according to Yevgeny Marchuk, ex-head of Ukraine’s Security Service, one of Ukraine’s representative at the Contact Group on Donbass.

“The schedule of the withdrawal has been attached to the agreement. It must take 13 days. I think this week the sides should start disengagement,” Marchuk said. According to him, this involves the areas in Stanitsa Luganskaya, Zolotaya (Lugansk region) and Petrovskaya (Donetsk region). “They will be representing a 4 sq. km territory. Each side will pull back its units 1km far from the engagement line. As for the Stanitsa Luganskaya, at first we wanted to extent that zone up to the state border,” Marchuk said.

Ukraine’s representative at the Contact Group said another four areas will be chosen at the next round of talks. As EADaily reported earlier, September 21, the participants of the Contact Group on the settlement of the conflict in the east of Ukraine signed one more framework agreement on disengagement of troops and arms in Donbass - it took the side three months to agree on the document.