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Kiev moves up to 200 self-propelled artillery weapons in Luhansk Region — militia

The movement violates Minsk agreements
Ukrainian troops riding on an armored vehicles ahead of self-propelled artillery (archive) AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka
Ukrainian troops riding on an armored vehicles ahead of self-propelled artillery (archive)
© AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka

MOSCOW, March 27. /TASS/. Kiev forces, in violation of the Minsk agreements, have moved up to 200 self-propelled artillery weapons to the area of the Stanitsa Luganskaya city overnight, a spokesman for the militia of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR) said on Friday.

"From 11:00 pm yesterday evening to 06:00 am this morning representatives of the people’s militia were recording the movement of armoured vehicles of the armed forces of Ukraine from the city of Belovodsk, which is under Ukrainian control, towards Stanitsa Luganskaya," the LuganskInformCentre agency quotes his a saying.

"The pulled in equipment includes self-propelled artery weapons of various modifications," the militia spokesman said.

The LPR people’s militia said that this fact is "blatant violation of the Minsk agreements." The agency said that the data on the movement of Ukrainian equipment have already been transferred to the Joint Centre for Control and Coordination (JCCC) of issues related to the ceasefire regime and stabilization in Donbas.

On March 26, representatives of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk republics accused Kiev of moving tanks to the contact line. They said the tanks were moved to the area of Kondrashovka, located 19 km from Luhansk and to the area of Selidovo, 30 km northwest of Donetsk.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said on Thursday that Kiev was ready to pull out tanks from the line of separation of the conflict sides in Donbas.

The withdrawal of heavy weapons from the contact line by both sides of the conflict is specified in the set of measures to implement the Minsk agreements, signed on February 12, 2015.

The Minsk agreements envisage ceasefire in Ukraine’s south-east, heavy weaponry withdrawal, prisoner exchange, local elections in Donbass and constitutional reform in Ukraine.

According to the document, artillery weapons with calibre exceeding 100 mm and more must be moved away from each other at a distance of 50 km, multiple launch rocket systems - at 70 km, the Tornado, Uragan, Smerch volley fire rocket systems, as well as the Tochka missiles - at 140 km. The sides undertook to withdraw their weapons at equal distances: Kiev - from the current contact line, and the DPR and LPR - from the line fixed in the Minsk memorandum of September 19.