Kyiv, Donetsk republic claim ceasefire compliance, but blame each other for breaches
DONETSK/KYIV. Sept 15 (Interfax) - Alexander Zakharchenko, the prime minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, has confirmed the militia's readiness to observe the truce negotiated in Minsk.
"We will fulfill the agreements with Ukraine, reached at a meeting of the Contact Group in Minsk," Zakharchenko told journalists on Monday.
"However, we are prepared to fight if the situation requires," he said.
Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council said, too, that the Ukrainian forces are complying with the truce and are not shelling cities.
The Council's spokesman, Andriy Lysenko, said at a press briefing in Kyiv on Monday that the Ukrainian military is only rebuffing attacks on their positions and strictly observing the ceasefire.
Zakharchenko said earlier on Monday that "Kyiv is not observing the truce reached during the previous talks in Minsk" and that he doubts that convening a second meeting of the Contact Group on the peaceful settlement of the situation in eastern Ukraine in Minsk makes sense.
"The shelling of cities and our positions continue. What's the idea for us to meet again this week and what are we going to discuss? The truce must be observed first," Zakharchenko told Interfax on Monday. He said that even if the Contact Group gathers in Minsk this week he will not attend.
Kyiv in turn said the militia has repeatedly attacked the Ukrainian positions and checkpoints.
Lysenko said at a press briefing on Monday that the militia had shelled the Ukrainian military's positions and checkpoints in the Donetsk regions, including in Nyzhnya Krynka, Maloorlivka, Hranitne, Krynychna, Krasnohorivka, Maryinka. Starohnatovka, Avdiyivka, Pesky, Verhnetoretske and the Donetsk airport, and in the Luhansk region, including in Kamyshevakha, Popasne, Schastye and Zolotovo.
"The military has been offering a worthy rebuff," he said.
The Ukrainian armed forces on Sunday "fought off an attempted breakthrough near Yasynuvata in the Donetsk region, and pushed the enemy away to a distance of several kilometers from the city," Lysenko said. "The militia was fighting with cover provided by artillery and Grad systems.
"All positions, occupied by the Ukrainian military, remained under their control. We are verifying reports about casualties," Lysenko said.
"The Ukrainian forces did not shell residential districts or cities, either today, or yesterday or earlier. Nor did they deliver air strikes," he said.
Since the ceasefire regime started warplanes are restricted in the zone of the counterterrorism operation. Only surveillance flights are permitted, he said.
The Ukrainian side has evidence that the militia has been firing at residential areas from suburbs "in order to discredit the Ukrainian armed forces." He said the militia uses Ukrainian insignia on weapons, or wears Ukrainian military uniforms, firing shots in front of cameras.
