You're reading: Both sides refuse to withdraw heavy weapons as Ukraine cease-fire fails

Ukraine's military spokesperson shattered remaining hopes for peace in the country's embattled Donbas region this morning when he announced that Ukrainian forces would not be withdrawing its heavy weapons today in line with the Feb. 12 Minsk agreement. The separatist leadership also said it planned to keep its big guns in place for now.


Lt. Colonel Andriy Lysenko, the spokesman for Ukraine’s military, said that continued
separatist and Russian artillery and rocket attacks were preventing a planned
Ukrainian withdrawal, adding that the Feb. 15 cease-fire had not come into
effect.

“Heavy
weapons can only be withdrawn after the first point of the Minsk agreements – a
cease-fire – is fulfilled,” Lysenko told Interfax news agency. “As far as I
know, there has been shelling in the past 24 hours. That is why fire has not
been ceased, and so far, there are no prerequisites to withdraw heavy
weapons,” he said. According to Lysenko,
five Ukrainian servicemen had been killed and nine wounded in past 24 hours.

Despite the
cease-fire agreement, Russian and pro-Russian separatist forces have continued
an all-out assault on the strategic road and railway town of Debaltseve, where
several thousand besieged Ukrainian troops cling on in isolated dug-outs and
shot-up buildings surrounded by hostile forces.

Senior insurgent leader Denis Pushylin
told Reuters news agency that pro-Russian militants will continue the fight for
Debaltseve.

“We do
not have the right (to stop fighting for Debaltseve). It’s even a moral thing.
It’s internal territory,” Pushilin was quoted as saying.

“We
have to respond to fire, to work on destroying the enemy’s fighting
positions.”

He also
said heavy artillery will stay put for now: “We are ready at any time, we
have everything ready for a mutual withdrawal. We will not do anything
unilaterally – that would make our soldiers targets.”

Fighting
had evidently reached close quarters yesterday, when bruised and battered
Ukrainian prisoners of war in the area were paraded on Russian television. The
soldiers said that, cut off from food and ammunition supplies, they had no
option other than to surrender.

Reporters
on the separatist side of the lines filmed Russian T72BR3 tanks outside
Debaltseve and heavy artillery and small arms fire in the villages surrounding
it.

With overwhelming evidence of Russia’s involvement now in the public
domain, the EU finally acknowledged Russia’s direct involvement in the fighting
late on Feb. 16, including three Russian officials on its sanctions list for
their role in deploying and commanding Russian troops in Ukraine.

In its
official journal the bloc announced it was placing restrictive measures on
Russian deputy defence ministers Anatoly Antonov and Arkady Bakhin for being
“involved in supporting the deployment of Russian troops
in Ukraine
“, and
listed Andrei Kartapolov, a senior Russian military commander, for being
“involved in shaping and implementing the military campaign of the Russian
forces in Ukraine”.

Even before
the truce came into effect Russian President Vladimir Putin and separatist
leaders had demanded Ukrainian troops at Debaltseve surrender, with separatists
vowing to kill any that tried to break out of their encirclement.

“Of
course we can open fire (on Debaltseve). It is our territory,” Eduard
Basurin, the Donetsk People’s Republic “ deputy Minister for Defense” told
Reuters news agency just hours after the cease-fire’s introduction.

OSCE
monitors trying to reach the town have so far been prevented by separatist
forces from doing so, prompting a conference call between Petro Poroshenko,
Angela Merkel and Putin earlier today. A statement issued by the German
government said that the three leaders had agreed specific steps to ensure
access for the OSCE observers.

“In
connection with the situation in Debaltseve, where starting from February 15 a
comprehensive cease-fire has not been established, the parties agreed on
specific steps that will enable the OSCE to monitor the situation in the
area,” the German government said.

The Feb. 15
cease-fire announcement had bought a brief respite for some areas of the front,
but fighting was already beginning to spread along the contact lines by Feb.
17, with Ukraine’s armed forces recording Grad rocket and mortar attacks on the
towns of Novotoshkivske and Zolote in Luhansk Oblast, some 50 kilometres from
Debaltseve.

By midday
on Feb. 17 the Trilateral Contact Group, consisting of senior representatives
of Ukraine, the Russian Federation and the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office were
scrambling to revive the abortive peace deal, holding a lengthy
video-conference to discuss the situation.

Kyiv Post editor Maxim Tucker can be reached at [email protected] or via Twitter: @MaxRTucker