People’s Police of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic stated that a group of Ukrainian radicals arrived in the area designated for the withdrawal of troops and assets, and they are equipping field camps in nearby settlements.
Earlier, DPR Head Denis Pushilin said that he was afraid of provocations of nationalists in the zone of troop withdrawal Donbass. On Tuesday, militias and Ukrainian security forces began the process of withdrawing forces from the contact line in the area of the city of Zolotoye. The Ukrainian Foreign Minister Vadim Pristayko said that the process of withdrawing of forces in Petrovskoye will begin in 7-10 days.
“Since October 28, we have been noticing the arrival of scattered radical groups that equip field camps in the Bogdanovka region and in nearby settlements. Some gangs choose the homes of local residents as their place of residence”, – a representative of the DPR People’s Police told the reporters.
Earlier, the contact group for Ukraine agreed to resume the process of troop withdrawal in the areas of Petrovskoye and Zolotoye, they planned to start it on October 9. However, Ukrainian nationalists in Zolotoye opposed this.
At the end of October, President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky visited the troop withdrawal station in Zolotoye. The network got a video with his heated discussion with a man in military uniform who introduced himself as a volunteer. In Kiev, they said that the armed people in Zolotoye are not representatives of the armed forces of Ukraine and do not have the right to be with weapons in the military operation zone.
In 2016, the contact group to resolve the situation in Ukraine signed a framework decision on the withdrawal of forces and assets of the parties of the Donbass conflict. The withdrawal of forces in the area of the settlements of Zolotoye and Petrovskoye took place in 2016, in the Village of Lugansk – in June 2019. At the same time, the DPR and LPR have repeatedly stated that the Ukrainian security forces advanced deep into the troop withdrawal areas in Petrovskoye and Zolotoye districts, and insisted on restoring parity.