Donetsk urges Kyiv to withdraw arms with caliber of less than 100mm following DPR and LPR
MOSCOW. July 19 (Interfax) - The military leadership of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) hopes that Kyiv will follow the example of the self-proclaimed republics of Donbas and withdraw weapons with caliber of less than 100mm.
"We have announced that we are pulling out unilaterally, the same as we have withdrawn troops from Shyrokyne. We keep our word and hope that Kyiv will follow suit and withdraw armaments after us," senior official from the DPR Defense Ministry Eduard Basurin has told Interfax.
For his part, Lt. Gen. Alexander Romanchuk, Russia's chief representative at the Joint Center for Control and Coordination (JCCC), told the Donetsk News Agency that he is expecting Ukraine to reciprocate the weapons removal.
"Donetsk has removed its weapons three kilometers from the contact line. We will inform Ukraine of the fact and await a similar response," he said.
On Sunday, representatives from the JCCC, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and the DPR defense ministry arrived at a site near Donetsk, where militias were moving their weapons, the agency said.
Earlier the General Staff of the Ukraine Armed Forces said Ukrainian formations involved in the military operation in Donbas had not received orders to withdraw armaments with caliber smaller than 100mm from the separation line.
Ukraine has been critical about claims by Donetsk and Luhansk that they had removed weapons with a caliber of less than 100 millimeters.
Maj. Gen. Andriy Taran, a Ukrainian representative in the JCCC, said: "These political claims made by the so-called leaders of the certain areas of Luhansk and Donetsk regions, about ostensible unilateral demilitarization of the village of Shyrokyne [near Mariupol] and ostensible withdrawal of tanks and artillery with a caliber of less than 100 millimeters serve only one goal: to justify their crimes."
