LUHANSK, December 9. /TASS/. The regime of silence declared in eastern Ukraine on Tuesday has not been violated in the territory of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR), LPR head Igor Plotnitsky said.

“According to our information, the regime of silence has not been violated on the first day. No shooting of shelling has been reported since the moment this regime was imposed,” he said, adding that the town of Pervomaisk had been shelled in the morning, before the regime of silence was imposed.

An intention to introduce a moratorium on combat actions was made public by President Petro Poroshenko on December 4. The initiative was welcomed by officials of the self-proclaimed independence-minded Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics.

Alexander Zakharchenko, the head of the Donetsk republic said the ceasefire had been declared as far back as September 5 at a meeting of the Contact Group for Ukraine in Minsk.

“We didn’t violate it on a single occasion,” he said. “All the violations have been committed by the Ukrainian Army. If the Ukrainian side doesn’t open fire, we won’t open it either.”

Andrei Lysenko, an official spokesman for the National Security and Defense Council said the objective of the Day of Silence was give a start to the fulfilling of Minsk agreements - that is, to begin the pullback of heavy weaponry, to release prisoners, to clear minefields, and to begin demilitarization of the region.