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Ukrainian foreign ministry asks OSCE to confirm full weapons withdrawal by militias

Kiev has informed the monitors of its readiness to return the pulled out weapons and military hardware to the disengagement line if it registers cases of shelling by the self-proclaimed republics

KIEV, November 10 /TASS/. Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry has asked OSCE SMM monitors in Ukraine to confirm the withdrawal of weapons and vehicles by the armed forces of the self-proclaimed republics of Donetsk and Luhansk (DPR and LPR), Vladislav Seleznyov, a spokesperson for the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, said on Tuesday.

"The Foreign Ministry has sent an inquiry to the OSCE with a request to confirm that the other side has met its commitment to withdraw the military hardware in full measure," Seleznyov said.

According to him, the Ukrainian side has informed the monitors of its readiness to return the pulled out weapons and military hardware to the disengagement line if it registers cases of shelling by the self-proclaimed republics.

A new stage of withdrawal of weapons and military hardware from the contact line under the Minsk agreements is under way in the region. Tanks will be pulled out first; artillery with a caliber under 100 mm will be withdrawn next and mortars with a caliber under 120 mm will be pulled put last.

Earlier, Leonid Matyukhin, a spokesperson for the command of the security operation in Donbas, said that the OSCE was supposed to start verifying the process of pulling out mortars due to be over on November 12.