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DPR leader: Kiev’s shelling makes truce in Donbass conditional

"The truce has rightly been called conditional. Nearly every day, there are provocations on the part of the Ukrainian army," the Donetsk News Agency quoted Zakharchenko as saying

© Valery Sharifulin / TASS archive

MOSCOW, November 4. /TASS/. Shelling on the part of Ukraine makes it impossible to say that the truce, effective from September 1 in Donbass, is firm, leader of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) Alexander Zakharchenko said Wednesday.

"The truce has rightly been called conditional. Nearly every day, there are provocations on the part of the Ukrainian army," the Donetsk News Agency quoted Zakharchenko as saying.

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He said he visited "units on the frontline" yesterday "and personally heard and saw the ‘silence regime’ in action."

"We see and register that and bring information to the public’s notice and to the notice of foreign observers and mediators," Zakharchenko said.

In line with an agreement reached in Minsk at a meeting of the Contact Group on settling the situation in east Ukraine, a complete ceasefire was established from September 1 at the disengagement line in Donbass. Still, separate instances of fire are registered from time to time.

Over the past two days, the DPR Defense Ministry has registered increased instances of shelling on the part of Ukraine’s military.

The ministry said that on November 2, a total of 16 violations of the truce in Donbass were registered.

Ukrainian troops have been engaged in fighting with local militias during Kiev’s punitive operation, underway since mid-April 2014, against the breakaway territories - the Donetsk and Lugansk people's republics constituting parts of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions of Ukraine.

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Massive shelling of residential neighborhoods, including with the use of aviation, has killed thousands and led to a humanitarian disaster in the area.

Kiev has regularly violated the ceasefire regime imposed as part of the Package of Measures on implementation of the September 2014 Minsk Agreements.

The Package (Minsk-2) was signed on February 12, 2015 in the Belarusian capital Minsk by participants of the Contact Group on settlement in Donbass.

The Package, earlier agreed with the leaders of the Normandy Four (Russia, France, Germany and Ukraine) envisioned an overwhelming cessation of fire and withdrawal of heavy armaments to create a security area in the region at least 50 kilometers wide.

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