Posts
It does seem that, in general, after initial shelling by Ukrainians surrounded at Debaltsevo, that the ceasefire is being observed, although the recent report below might indicate otherwise.
Watch this space.
‘Observed in general’: France, Germany, Kiev & rebels agree truce holding
Watch this space.
‘Observed in general’: France, Germany, Kiev & rebels agree truce holding
RT,
15
Febraury, 2015
A
ceasefire that came into force midnight in eastern Ukraine is being
observed in general, France and Germany declared in a joint
statement. Donetsk officials say they will withdraw heavy weapons in
accord with the timeline set by the Minsk deal.
The
ceasefire in eastern Ukraine was being generally observed despite
local incidents, which were quickly resolved, said France and
Germany's joint statement, issued by the Elysees Palace on Sunday.
The statement was published after President Francois Hollande and
Chancellor Angela Merkel held a telephone conversation with President
Vladimir Putin and President Petro Poroshenko.
The
Normandy Four leaders are also set to continue talks Monday,
according to Ukraine’s presidential website.
Earlier
in the day, Organization for Security and Co-operation in Euro, who
observes the ceasefire in eastern Ukraine, confirmed that it had been
substantially implemented in the last 12 hours, with the exception of
certain areas in Debaltsevo and Lugansk.
Ukraine
mission head Ertuğrul Apakan added that the OSCE monitors failed to
enter Debaltsevo, and called on both sides of the conflict to enable
access to all territories in eastern Ukraine.
The
number of OSCE monitors will be increased to 350, according to the
OSCE spokesman for the monitoring mission in Ukraine, Michael
Botsurkiv. He added that the mission will also use drones and
satellite images to monitor the holding of the ceasefire.
The
spokesperson of Ukraine's Joint Staff, Vladislav Seleznev, has
confirmed that all shelling of Ukrainian positions has stopped at 3
AM local time. "The
military posture is fairly stable,"
reported Donetsk region's police chief Vyacheslav Abroskin.
The
Donetsk militia representative Eduard Basurin that in the morning the
rebel forces "selectively"
taped the enemy batteries in response to provocative fire and that
they would continue responding as promised earlier.
“We
will start to withdraw heavy weaponry in accord with the Minsk
agreement and [by the] time set,"
he dded.
Another
militia leader Denis Pushilin denied that Donetsk officials had
received any requests from OSCE to enter the Debaltsevo area.
Despite
the sporadic shelling that marred the morning, residents of
Kramatorsk felt relieved with the coming of the ceasefire.
"I
cannot say that optimism prevails... At least there are no sounds of
shooting now,”
journalist Kerstin Kronwall, who is in the city reporting for Yle,
said.
Debaltsevo
trap
The
blissful silence in the morning, according to the rebels, lasted for
less than an hour, as Ukrainian troops inflicted several mortar and
artillery strikes on rebel forces guarding the perimeter of
Debaltsevo mousetrap, where an estimated 5,000 Ukrainian task force
is running out of munitions and ordnance while making attempts to
break out.
The
locked Ukrainian troops shelled settlements of Yenakievo and
Gorlovka, as well as the territory of Donetsk airport, no so long ago
handed over to the militia forces after months of severe firefight.
But the living quarters of the city of Donetsk this time remained
intact.
Donetsk
People’s Republic (DPR) head Aleksandr Zakharchenko said on the eve
of the ceasefire that the entrapment near Debaltsevo is situated on
the territory fully controlled by the rebel forces. This is
interpreted that Minsk agreements on separation of the warring
parties do not apply to the encircled Ukrainian servicemen.
“Please
pay attention to the fact that there isn’t a word about Debaltsevo
[entrapment] in Minsk agreements. That means that Ukraine has simply
betrayed those 5,000 people in Debaltsevo trap,”Zakharchenko
said, stressing that no negotiations about the entrapment is
currently underway with Kiev.
"Any
attempt of the Ukrainian armed forces to unblock Debaltsevo will be
regarded as violation of the Minsk agreements, such attempts will be
suppressed, adversaries will be eliminated,” he dded.
The
blockaded Ukrainian troops have been offered to turn in their weapons
and surrender, but very littler number of servicemen has followed the
call due to retreat-blocking detachments of Ukrainian nationalists
guarding the troops in the rear of their positions.
Commenting
on the remark made by Zakharchenko, Russian President Vladimir
Putin's spokesman said that the accords underpinning Ukraine truce
must be “unconditionally
observed.”
"All
the sequences of actions have been mentioned in the package of
measures for the implementation of the Minsk agreement. All those
terms have to be observed unconditionally,"
Dmitry Peskov was quoted as saying by Reuters.
Kiev
authorities have been consistently denying the very existence of the
Debaltsevo entrapment. Yet Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has
told Ukrainian Joint Staff that the peace process is under the threat
of failure because of the situation at Debaltsevo.
“I’ve
warned you on that,” Poroshenko
stressed.
Will
ceasefire old?
In
the meantime France’s TV5 Monde aired the disastrous humanitarian
catastrophe the Donbass locals find themselves in. The people there
trust no one and do not believe a peace with Kiev is tangible.
“They
have proclaimed ceasefire many times but never respected it,” a
local woman told French reporters.
That
was exactly the case with Ukraine’s Right Sector leader Dmitry
Yarosh, who said his radical movement rejects the Minsk peace deal
and that their paramilitary units in eastern Ukraine will
continue“active
fighting” according
to their “own
plans.”
After
the truce came into force at 2:00 GMT, Yarosh made a statement of
National Guards official website, saying “Two
of mine finely armed and equipped battalions continue offensive near
Debaltsevo and have serious achievements militarily.”
Several
hours later the statement was deleted from the website.
Screenshot from vv.gov.ua
DPR’s
head Aleksandr Zakharchenko said that the rest of the region is
regarded as “temporarily
occupied” and
will be liberated politically or militarily. Political way is
preferable as it helps save human lives, but if politics does not
succeed, “we’ve
already drawn attention to our capability to solve issues militarily,
and not once for that matter,” Zakharchenko
said.
Germany, Russia send humanitarian aid to E.Ukraine
In
the meantime two convoys with humanitarian aid from Russia are under
customs clearance right now on the Russian-Ukrainian border. Once
cleared, the white trucks of Russia’s Emergency Ministry will go on
two routes: to Donetsk and to Lugansk, delivering food and medical
supplies to citizens of the besieged cities.
Simultaneously
with this, a shipment of 28 tons of medical supplies has arrived to
Donets from Germany. The supplies were bought using donations
collected in Germany by initiative of a group of German MPs and the
shipment became the very first humanitarian aid delivered to Donbass
from the EU.
The
delivery was made through the Russian territory because Kiev failed
to provide Berlin with transit authorization. Four trucks from
Germany delivered medical supplies to Donetsk, Lugansk and Gorlovka.
From the Saker
This report from the front line is fresh
After a bad start, ceasefire appears to be holding
It
appears that after a bad start, the ceasefire is now more or less
generally respected. The intensity of the shooting has
dramatically fallen and the front is generally quiet. We shall
see how long this will last.
The Saker
The Saker
This report from the front line is fresh
Defense Ministry DNR: due to violation of the armistice Ukrainian army lost 9 tanks, 12 infantry fighting vehicles, 16 artillery systems, 7 cars and 111 men killed in a day (VIDEO)
Минобороны ДНР: из-за нарушения перемирия ВСУ потеряли за сутки 9 танков, 12 БМП, 16 артиллерийских систем, 7 автомобилей и 111 человек убитыми (ВИДЕО)
Via
electronic translation
15
February, 2015, 11.45 pm Moscow time
15
February, 2015 Loss of power structures of Ukraine as a result of
clashes, just one day amounted to 9 tanks, 12 infantry fighting
vehicles, 16 artillery systems, 7 cars, 111 people were killed, said
the Ministry of Defense Corps Deputy Commander Edward Basurin DNR.
These
data include the loss of the enemy before the entry of the ceasefire,
as well as data obtained by our intelligence in steals in Debaltseve.
During last night, and today the first in a long time the situation
in the People's Republic of Donetsk remained relatively calm.
DNR
army units, according to the agreements with Minsk from 00-00 hours
Moscow time completely stopped fighting all along the line of contact
with the enemy.
However,
at night and in the morning from the disparate groups Ukrainian
security officials recorded provocative conduct fire on our positions
with small arms and mortars. In some cases, to prevent these
provocations our troops were forced to open fire on a single precise
suppression.
In
general, with the order of the head of all army units DNR DNR refrain
from retaliation and do not respond to minor provocation Ukrainian
security officials.
Despite
the steady silence in the area Debaltseve, the situation there
continues to be challenging. The ceasefire came into effect
immediately. Attacks of varying intensity of our positions primarily
in Logvinova, both from the city and from Lugansk continue.
About
3 o'clock in the morning a large group of Ukrainian troops pulled
back last night on the eastern outskirts Debaltseve tried to enter
under cover of darkness to enter Chernukhin.
At
the direction of the Donetsk Ukrainian security forces during the
night were single firing mortars from residential areas of Donetsk -
4 shelling, its suburbs - 6 attacks, Donetsk airport - 18 attacks, as
well as others of us. points.
Mariupol
on the direction of the national militia units were local defensive
battles, preventing the movement of the enemy.
We urge
Kiev to comply strictly with the Minsk agreement on a complete
ceasefire.
The
Ukrainian side is preparing provocations against the DNI. In some
localities, controlled by the APU, it has been observed a large
number of journalists Ukrainian media, which according to our
information, they want to "fix" what we did. Therefore, we
warn about this immediately and will be ready for it.
The cease-fire has begun
By
noon it is possible to state confidently that the cease-fire is
mostly being observed and that the intensity of military action on
the majority of locations has decreased effectively down to zero.
Nevertheless, sporadic small-arms firefights continued on a number of locations during the night and the use of artillery was noted in the area of Debalcevo, which is not surprising considering the indeterminate status of the Debalcevo cauldron, the presence of which the junta continues to den.
During the night Yarosh's announcement of some "Right Sector" battalions advancing somewhere suddenly appeared and then just as suddenly disappeared. There were also mutual accusations of the sides of the opposing side shelling something, but on the background of the silent front these accusations didn't look too convincing, so it is quite logical that by the morning we observed effectively a cease-fire in Donbass, although certainly there are periodic firefights for now.
How long the truce and the associated operational pause will last isn't clear yet, but if the sides will hold their fire until tomorrow, then it will be possible to summarize the results of the January NAF offensive. The question of Debalcevo, being unresolved during the January offensive, moves to the next phase of the war and so a powerful political and informational background will grow around this crucial transport hub in addition to its military significance.
Foreign policy evaluations of the events will follow today/tomorrow (some already put the cart before the horse and yell that Merkel needs to be given a Nobel peace prize). Also in the coming days it is worth expecting various provocations and also the regular accusations against Russia of disrupting the peace process.
Original article: http://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/2050491.html (in Russian)
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.