DONETSK. Feb 21 (Interfax) - Some political forces in Kyiv may be thwarting the withdrawal of weapons in Donbas, according to the defense ministry of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR).
"Interested persons in Ukraine, who have no major impact on the situation, are doing everything for the withdrawal of weapons not to take place today so as to thereby keep the nationalist battalions in the ATO [anti-terrorist operation] zone," Eduard Basurin of the defense ministry of the Donetsk People's Republic told journalists.
This is being done in order to "rule out involvement of these battalions' representatives in anti-government rallies in Kyiv on February 22," he said.
He suggested that Ukrainian government forces might resort to provocations aimed at disrupting the withdrawal process.
"The Ukrainian Armed Forces command has tasked the press center of the ATO headquarters with covering previously unreported Ukrainian army losses in the conflict zone to prompt the public to presume that we failed to observe the ceasefire over the past 24 hours and justify the possibility of yet another disruption of the planned military equipment withdrawal," Basurin said.