DONETSK. Oct 13 (Interfax) - Volodymyr Kononov, the defense minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR), accuses Kyiv of violating the ceasefire and warns that the militias would pull their troops back from the contact line only after the Ukrainian forces do the same.
"There were five violations of the peace agreements on the Ukrainian side last night. This mainly concerned attacks by armored vehicles reporting to Kyiv on the militia's positions," Kononov said.
"The DPR will pull its troops back from the contact line only after the Ukrainian side takes analogous steps," Kononov said. "We will be pulling our troops back only after we see that Ukraine has done the same, not unilaterally. And besides, we don't rule out that the Ukrainian forces could launch an offensive within the next few days," he said.
Kononov also accused Kyiv of failing to comply with the agreements on the buffer zone demarcation. "I was present while this agreement was signed, but Ukraine is not observing the separation agreement. They are playing for time and moving hardware up toward the contact line," Kononov said.
Oleksandr Zakharchenko, the DPR prime minister, had told journalists at a news conference earlier on Saturday that the opposing parties could start withdrawing heavy artillery from the contact line in five days. "A period of quiet should begin today. If it is observed for five days, then the parties will begin withdrawing heavy artillery," Zakharchenko said.
Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council spokesman Andriy Lysenko said earlier in the day that the government forces would start pulling back heavy weapons from the contact line with the militias only after the latter start doing the same.
"We have prepared all the necessary sites and routes for withdrawal," Lysenko said at a news conference on Saturday, adding that Kyiv was waiting for the opposing side to do the same.
Kyiv had said earlier that it would start pulling back heavy weapons from the contact line in the southeastern part of the country after a ceasefire is observed for at least 24 hours. "At least 24 hours is necessary to see whether the period of quiet is observed. There needs to be a period, say 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 on October 8.