DONETSK, September 6 (Itar-Tass) - Ukrainian forces do not observe the ceasefire, continuing shelling Donetsk and positions of the Donetsk Republic’s militia near Mariupol, co-chairman of the People’s Front of Novorossia political movement Konstantin Dolgov told Itar-Tass on Saturday.
None of truce agreements concluded with Poroshenko has been observed. Ukrainian forces continue artillery strikes on Donetsk and its suburbs and do not stop firing in Mariupol, he said.
The Defence Ministry of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic said on Saturday that Gorlovka was under mortar fire. A coalmine was shelled in Makeyevka at about midnight. Fire was opened on the town of Yasinovataya. Ukrainian troops also fired from armoured vehicle weapons at Donetsk airport.
“Now it is relatively calm in the city,” a defence ministry source said.
The high-ranking source said “Kiev’s statements about a ceasefire were only statements. These are statements only on paper and in the air. In reality, it does not seem to be truth,” he said.
The Donetsk and Lugansk republic’s forces observed the truce, he added.
On Friday, the Donetsk Republic’s Prime Minister Alexander Zakharchenko, after the meeting of the contact group in Minsk, ordered by telephone to stop fire, and the ceasefire is observed, the source said.
He also said that Ukrainian troops were seen redeploying in the Mariupol area.
Itar-Tass had no confirmation of the information from other sources.
An agreement on a truce between the conflict parties was reached in eastern Ukraine previously on June 20, but Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko cancelled the truce on June 30, saying it was unilateral. During the period, Kiev troops repeatedly fired from artillery guns and mortars at residential areas in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions. They also used heavy weapons against militia forces.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on September 3 proposed a peace plan to settle the crisis in Ukraine. The plan called for stopping offenses by all forces in southeastern Ukraine, withdrawal of armed forces at a safe range from residential sites, international monitoring of ceasefire observance, no use of military aircraft against civilians, swap of all captives, opening humanitarian corridors and repair of the infrastructure.
An agreement on ceasefire and a settlement plan was reached during the meeting of the contact group in Minsk on September 5 with the participation of representatives from Kiev, southeastern Ukrainian regions, the OSCE and Russia.