Reuters :
Ukraine’s military and separatist forces have agreed “in principle” on a new ceasefire from Dec. 5 in the rebel-held Luhansk region in the east of the country, the OSCE security group said.
The deal reported by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe is the latest attempt to reinforce a much violated ceasefire agreed on Sept. 5.
Shelling by from both sides has continued despite the three-month-old ceasefire deal signed by Ukraine, Russia and the pro-Russian separatists’ leaders. Subsequent attempts to forge a stronger truce have failed to halt the artillery fire.
The OSCE said representatives from both sides had “agreed in principle to a total ceasefire along the entire line of contact” in the Luhansk region, but that differences remained on certain details.
The sides “continued to dispute aspects of the disengagement phase,” the OSCE said in a report released late on Monday.
More than 4,300 people have been killed in eastern Ukraine since separatist rebellions began in April. September’s ceasefire deal has come under particular strain from fighting over the airport of the rebel stronghold of Donetsk.
Ukraine said military representatives of Ukraine and Russia would hold talks with rebels on Tuesday in Donetsk, the other rebellious region, on Tuesday on establishing a new ceasefire as soon as possible and on the withdrawal of heavy weapons.
“Particular attention will be paid to the question of Donetsk airport as it is a strategic site,” the press service for the Ukrainian military operation in the east said in a post on Facebook.
The sides held similar talks in November and did not reach an agreement.
Moscow denies using humanitarian convoys to transport weapons and rejects Western accusations that it is arming the rebels and sending fighters to aid them. It accuses the West and Kiev of pressing a campaign of indiscriminate violence in the eastern territories of Luhansk and Donetsk.
Commenting on the convoy, Stoltenberg said the best way to improve the humanitarian situation in eastern Ukraine was to stop violations of the Minsk agreement, intended to halt the conflict in eastern Ukraine, and to respect the ceasefire.
“We are seeing that the separatists and Russia (are) not doing that. Russia is fuelling the conflict by providing … equipment and other kinds of support for the separatists and thereby undermining and violating the ceasefire and also the efforts to create a peaceful, negotiated solution,” he said.
NATO foreign ministers meet in Brussels on Tuesday to discuss the situation in Ukraine and to review steps the 28-nation alliance has taken to boost its defenses and to reassure nervous eastern European allies following Moscow’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea region in March.
Ukraine’s military and separatist forces have agreed “in principle” on a new ceasefire from Dec. 5 in the rebel-held Luhansk region in the east of the country, the OSCE security group said.
The deal reported by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe is the latest attempt to reinforce a much violated ceasefire agreed on Sept. 5.
Shelling by from both sides has continued despite the three-month-old ceasefire deal signed by Ukraine, Russia and the pro-Russian separatists’ leaders. Subsequent attempts to forge a stronger truce have failed to halt the artillery fire.
The OSCE said representatives from both sides had “agreed in principle to a total ceasefire along the entire line of contact” in the Luhansk region, but that differences remained on certain details.
The sides “continued to dispute aspects of the disengagement phase,” the OSCE said in a report released late on Monday.
More than 4,300 people have been killed in eastern Ukraine since separatist rebellions began in April. September’s ceasefire deal has come under particular strain from fighting over the airport of the rebel stronghold of Donetsk.
Ukraine said military representatives of Ukraine and Russia would hold talks with rebels on Tuesday in Donetsk, the other rebellious region, on Tuesday on establishing a new ceasefire as soon as possible and on the withdrawal of heavy weapons.
“Particular attention will be paid to the question of Donetsk airport as it is a strategic site,” the press service for the Ukrainian military operation in the east said in a post on Facebook.
The sides held similar talks in November and did not reach an agreement.
Moscow denies using humanitarian convoys to transport weapons and rejects Western accusations that it is arming the rebels and sending fighters to aid them. It accuses the West and Kiev of pressing a campaign of indiscriminate violence in the eastern territories of Luhansk and Donetsk.
Commenting on the convoy, Stoltenberg said the best way to improve the humanitarian situation in eastern Ukraine was to stop violations of the Minsk agreement, intended to halt the conflict in eastern Ukraine, and to respect the ceasefire.
“We are seeing that the separatists and Russia (are) not doing that. Russia is fuelling the conflict by providing … equipment and other kinds of support for the separatists and thereby undermining and violating the ceasefire and also the efforts to create a peaceful, negotiated solution,” he said.
NATO foreign ministers meet in Brussels on Tuesday to discuss the situation in Ukraine and to review steps the 28-nation alliance has taken to boost its defenses and to reassure nervous eastern European allies following Moscow’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea region in March.
