A spokesman for Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council on Wednesday, Oct. 8 confirmed that government and militant forces were to observe the current "silence regime" - a complete ceasefire - for at least 24 hours before they withdrew their heavy weapons to a distance of 15 kilometers from the frontline under a peace agreement.
The “silence regime” took effect at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 7.
“A ceasefire is the main point, and only after that all other conditions can start being fulfilled – withdrawal of heavy armaments of a caliber of more than 100 millimeters, removal of engineering obstacles and minefields, and organizing the work of an international monitoring group comprising Russian and Ukrainian officers and representatives of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe,” Andriy Lysenko told Interfax-Ukraine.
A Sept. 19 memorandum prescribes what is to be done, he said.
“The first and main condition is a ceasefire because the Ukrainian forces only open fire to retaliate and don’t attack. So we’re waiting for the militants to cease fire. We will cease fire automatically right after that, and then the next set of conditions will start being fulfilled,” Lysenko said.
“As soon as they cease fire, there must be 24 hours of silence, and then heavy artillery will start being withdrawn,” he said in setting out the terms of the memo.
An international monitoring team posted in a 30-kilometer neutral zone is to notify the Ukrainian command whether the ceasefire has been observed, Lysenko said.
“At least 24 hours is necessary to see whether the ‘silence regime’ is observed. There needs to be a period, about 24 hours, when nobody fires a single shot. If there’s even one shot, it’ll mean that the regime hasn’t been observed,” Lysenko said.
