Ukrainian Officials: Multiple ceasefire violations put Minsk agreement at risk.
Ukrainian authorities confirm their withdrawal of heavy armor from the areas around Mariupol. Although due to the continuing ceasefire violations from the areas controlled by Pro-Russian separatist the withdrawal may be reversed.
In his statement, the spokesman for the Ukrainian army stated that while Ukrainian military continues the withdrawal stipulated by the Minsk Agreement there are multiple violations of ceasefire from the Separatist controlled areas.
In the past day, militants opened fire on Ukrainian positions in Artemovsk, Donetsk, and Mariupol areas. Also, there have been multiple ceasefire violations in Zaitsevo, Krasnogorovka, Avdeevka and the Ukrainian positions in the areas near Peski and Novgorodska regions from automatic and anti-tank missiles, heavy machine guns, and sniper rifles.
“While adhering to the Minsk agreement Ukrainian military completed the pullback of 100-mm mortars, the followers of so-called “Russian world” continue to open fire on residential areas” – stated the spokesman of Ukrainian Military Commandment.
Officials from the Joint Centre on monitoring and coordination of cease-fire believe that such provocations are targeted actions to destabilize the situation.
Since October 18 to November 6 the Center has recorded 26 ceasefire violations and 361 provocative shellings of Ukrainian positions.
Ukrainian officials say that the situation became worse after October 18. This coincided with the second stage of the withdrawal of heavy artillery and armour.
"The latest peak of such ceasefire violations happened at the time of preparation of the meeting of Foreign Ministers in Berlin.
Only on November 6th the Ukrainian side recorded 26 mortar and small arms attacks on their positions." - state the Ukrainian Officials.
The Ukrainian Secretary of the National Security and Defence , Oleksandr Turchynov, said that if such violations continue, the Ukraine’s armed forces will have to stop the withdrawal of weapons and military equipment.