Donbass militias started a unilateral withdrawal of military equipment from the demarcation line on Sunday. They are willing to demonstrate to the international community their readiness to implement provisions of the Minsk-2 Agreement, German TV Channel Das Erste reported.

The recent withdrawal of tanks and other military equipment started by Donbass militias on Sunday shows signs of improving situation in Ukraine and may give hope for a coming resolution of the conflict, Das Erste reported.

However, it is too early to speak about ultimate resolution of the Ukrainian conflict. The recent shelling of Donetsk shows that one cannot count on a speedy end to the war, Das Erste reported.

The withdrawal of weaponry is taking place in coordination with OCSE; international observers are monitoring the process.

“We hope for the same response from Kiev,” Sergey Kozlov, Chief of Staff of Luhansk People’s Militia said earlier. “We should do this in the presence of the OSCE mission, which is to make sure who is really willing to perform constructive provisions of Minsk-2 Agreement, and who […] is simulating and is engaged in fraud,” he added.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called on Kiev to take the same step. However, Ukrainian authorities are slow in taking response measures and view the peaceful initiative of the Donbass militias as propaganda and “another round of information war, sparked by the Russian media.”

Under the February ceasefire deal, both Kiev forces and Donbass independence supporters were to remove heavy weapons with a caliber of over 100mm, creating an 18-mile buffer zone.

The DPR and LPR announced the unilateral withdrawal of their military equipment on July 18. Kiev forces have not yet received an order to withdraw their weapons.



