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Shelling halts in Ukraine's Donetsk as Poroshenko orders ceasefire
1 OF 11. Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko talks to military staff in Kiev February 14, 2015.
Sat
Feb 14, 2015 5:46pm EST
(Reuters)
- Shelling suddenly stopped at midnight in the eastern Ukrainian city
of Donetsk after President Petro Poroshenko gave the order to
government forces to cease firing at midnight in line with a peace
agreement reached last Thursday.
Reuters
correspondent Anton Zverev reported heavy artillery and rocket fire
roughly every five seconds in the run-up to ceasefire time, but then
the big guns fell silent just seconds after midnight
E.
Ukraine leaders order ceasefire, voice amendments to constitution
RT,
14
Febraury, 2015
The
eastern Ukrainian militias will stop all military action on Sunday in
accordance with the Minsk peace deal, but will suppress any
provocations which may be organized by Kiev forces, said Aleksandr
Zakharchenko, head of Donetsk People’s Republic.
As
hours are left till the Minsk ceasefire agreement is set to start,
leaders of the restive Ukrainian republics say their regions have
ratified the peace deal.
The
militias will stop all military action outside the territory of the
Donetsk People’s Republic, Zakharchenko said. However, he said that
the self-defense forces will reply to any provocative actions by the
Kiev troops, including assaults and precision fire.
The
DPR leader also said that rebels won’t release a large group of
Ukrainian troops, who have been entrapped near the village of
Debaltsevo since early February.
“Their
every attempt to break out will be suppressed,” Zakharchenko
is cited by RIA-Novosti news agency.
The
rebels’ leader reminded that “there
wasn’t a word mentioning Debaltsevo in the agreements” signed
in Minsk on February 12, which means that “Ukraine
simply betrayed the 5,000 people trapped in the Debaltsevo
‘cauldron’.”
Earlier,
DPR Defense Ministry spokesman, Eduard Basurin, said that the
Ukrainian troops near Debaltsevo won’t be shelled, but won’t be
released as well, with surrender being the only option.
Zakharchenko
has put his signature under a decree, which foresees the beginning of
the ceasefire at 01:00 AM local time on Sunday - midnight for Kiev
and 2200 GMT.
The
DPR head also said that the Donetsk People’s Republic won’t grant
control over its border with Russia to Ukrainian border
guards: “Today
an order will be issued to create the border guard service. Not a
single Ukrainian soldier will enter our territory.”
Poroshenko warns of martial law
Meanwhile,
Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko has once again warned that
Ukraine if the Minsk agreements fail, “martial
law will be implemented not only in Donetsk and Lugansk, but in the
whole country”.
Moscow
has expressed hopes Kiev and the rebels, as well as all the sides,
which supported the Minsk peace deal, including France and
Germany, “will
do everything for the signed agreements to be scrupulously
implemented,” the
Russian Foreign Ministry said.
"Ukraine's
official representatives...as well as those of several Western
countries, the US in particular, have essentially expressed
solidarity with the opinion of radical nationalists in the Verkhovna
Rada (Ukrainian parliament) and have began distorting the contents of
the Minsk agreements," the
ministry said.
On
Saturday, Poroshenko spoke to German Chancellor Angela Merkel and
French President Francois Hollande on the phone, with the three heads
of state stressing that all sides must fulfill the obligations
they’ve taken according to Minsk agreements, first of all, those
concerning the ceasefire.
The
Ukrainian president also had a telephone conversation with US
president Barack Obama, during which the two leaders “agreed
on the further coordination of efforts in the event of an
escalation” in
Ukraine's southeast.
Poroshenko
and Obama “discussed
the situation in Donbass and expressed concerns about the situation
in Debaltsevo,” according
to the Ukrainian president’s website.
Russian
Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his US counterpart, John Kerry,
also discussed the situation in southeastern Ukraine on the phone,
and stressed “the
importance of strict implementation of the ceasefire regime by the
conflicting sides.”
Lavrov
also emphasized that the Minsk peace deal “also
includes obligations by Kiev to remove the financial and economic
blockade of the [Ukrainian] southeast; to provide an amnesty; to
stage a constitutional reform by the end of the year and adopt
legislation on the special status of Donbass,"Russia’s
Foreign Ministry said on its Facebook page.
The
contact group, which includes representatives from the Donetsk and
Lugansk regions, held video consultations on Saturday, the
Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) said.
According
to the OSCE, all parties agreed to take necessary measures to
establish the agreed truce and de-escalation of the conflict,
including in the areas of Debaltsevo and Mariupol.
The
contact group will continue holding consultations on a regular basis
to ensure the implementation of the Minsk agreements, a statement
from the watchdog added.
Constitutional
change
The
Minsk agreement provides for a security zone separating the Kiev
forces and the rebels, a ceasefire beginning on Sunday and a heavy
weapons pullout to be completed in 14 days. The deal was signed by
the contact group, which includes the leaders of the self-proclaimed
Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, a representative of the
OSCE, Ukraine’s former president Leonid Kuchma, and the Russian
ambassador to Ukraine,
A
separate declaration supporting the deal was agreed upon by the
so-called “Normandy
Four” leaders
– French President Francois Hollande, German Chancellor Angela
Merkel, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President
Petro Poroshenko, who also gathered in Belarusian capital.
In
accordance with the deal, on Saturday the eastern Ukrainian republics
also proposed amendments to the constitution. One of the key demands
is to grant certain regions the right to define and form the
structure of local governments themselves, Denis Pushilin, DPR
representative at the Minsk talks, said.
The
rebels also want the official status for the Russian language and
other minority languages, spoken in Ukraine’s central regions, he
said. Another proposed amendment foresees the decentralization of
fiscal and tax systems, “up
to the possibility of creating in free economic zones and other
special economic regimes on certain territories," Pushilin
is cited by TASS news agency.
While
the Minsk deal is hoped to secure an end to the bloody and
devastating internal conflict that has taken the lives of over 5,300
people in the UN’s estimates since last April, shelling in Donetsk
was reported throughout the whole of Saturday.
For
the western, Guardian view - just a few hours before
Neither
side seems to expect an end to the conflict, and both were trying to
shore up their positions before the deadline
The very latest from the Front
AT
2 AM Ukrainian troop opened mortar fire on the positions of the LPR
and DPR - Ministry of Defence
В два ночи ВСУ открыли минометный и артогонь по позициям ЛНР и ДНР — Минобороны
15
February, 2015, 18.30 ET
At
two in the morning (time Donetsk) APU opened mortar and artogon the
positions of the LC and the DNR. This was announced today at a
briefing in the night DAN deputy corps commander Defense Ministry DNR
Edward Basurin.
"At
two o'clock in the morning surrounded by the remains of categories
Ukrainian security forces in Debaltseve opened artillery and mortar
fire on positions DNR and LC on uninhabited settlements and
civilians," - he said.
"There
are new victims. DNR units, in order to avoid civilian casualties are
spot fire on fire weapons, "- said the representative of the
Ministry of Defense.
MORE
TO FOLLOW
В
два ночи (время Донецкое) ВСУ открыли
минометный и артогонь по позициям ЛНР
и ДНР. Об этом сегодня на ночном брифинге
в ДАН заявил заместитель командующего
корпусом Минобороны ДНР Эдуард Басурин.
«В
два часа ночи остатки группировки
окруженных украинских силовиков в
Дебальцево, открыли артиллерийский и
минометный огонь по позициям ДНР и ЛНР
по незаселенным пунктам и мирным
жителям», — отметил он.
«Есть
новые жертвы. Подразделения ДНР, в целях
недопущения гибели мирного населения
ведут точечный огонь по огневым средствам
противника», — добавил представитель
Минобороны.
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