MOSCOW, February 16, /TASS/. Ukraine’s troops are not observing the truce declared in Donbas from February 15, Eduard Basurin, a spokesman for the defense ministry of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), said on Monday.
"We see no ceasefire on the part of Ukraine’s punitive battalions, neither we observe them preparing to pull out heavy weapons from the line of engagement," he said.
"So, we can withdraw our units from the line of engagement only concurrently with the Ukrainian side, under control of international observers and representatives of the Joint Center for Control and Coordination (JCCC)," he stressed.
At the same time, Baurin underscored that DPR militias were ready to begin the implementation of the Minsk agreements immediately.
"Over the past 24 hours, Ukraine’s artillery shelled our settlements and positions from missile systems and conventional artillery 49 times," he said. "According to radio messages intercepted by our intelligence agencies, Kiev has no control over army units deployed in Donbas. First of all, I am speaking about the so-called ‘volunteer battalions’ Aidar, Azov, Donbas, Krivbas and others that have gone out of control of Ukraine’s general staff and which open fire at DPR cities to the phone order from their so-called commanders in Kiev."