Ukrainian military not planning to pull back heavy weapons as long as militia's attack threat exists
KYIV. Aug 13 (Interfax) - The Ukrainian side will not withdraw heavy weapons from the contact line in the country's east unless militia forces stop shelling Ukrainian positions, spokesman of the presidential administration on issues surrounding the military operation Andrei Lysenko told Interfax.
"As long as there is a threat of attacking and offensive actions on our positions and [until] the situation has a tendency for cutting shellings, Ukrainian troops will have to keep heavy weapons in their positions to deter the enemy. Until the situation is stabilized, these weapons will be pulled back to the distance which is set in the Minsk accords," he said on Thursday.
In addition, Lysenko said: "Ukraine has been implementing and will be implementing the Minsk accords, but in this case, and our international partners, including OSCE representatives, are warned about this, we have to keep heavy weapons in this particularly dangerous area."
