Special Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office to the Trilateral Contact Group on Ukraine, Martin Sajdik, said earlier on Wednesday that conflicting parties in Donbass reached an agreement on withdrawing the banned weapons from the contact line by February 20.
“This deal is more relevant for Kiev…The agreement on the pullout of heavy weaponry by February 20 may be implemented only if the West — Germany, France and the United States — really apply pressure on Poroshenko,” Zakharchenko said.
The breakout of hostilities in eastern Ukraine began in April 2014 as a local counter-reaction to the West-sponsored Maidan coup in Kiev that had toppled legitimate President Viktor Yanukovych in February. Residents of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions held independence referendums and proclaimed the People’s Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk. Kiev has since been conducting a military operation, encountering stiff local resistance.