Trilateral Contact Group Agrees on Withdrawal of Weapons in Eastern Ukraine

The Working Group on Security of the Trilateral Contact Group, which involves representatives of Ukraine, Russia and the OSCE, reached an agreement on Tuesday on the withdrawal of tanks and other weapons from the frontline in eastern Ukraine.

The latest agreement supplements the Minsk ceasefire accords, which were signed in February.

Martin Sajdik, representative of the Organization for Security and Co-operation (OSCE) at the peace talks, said that the withdrawal will begin to be implemented in two days and will take 39 days to complete, Radio Free Europe informs.

The agreement covers the withdrawal of tanks, mortars up to 120 milimetres and artillery of less than 100 milimetres to a distance of fifteen kilometres.

The Ukrainian envoy, former president Leonid Kuchma, signed the agreement on behalf of Kiev, while the leaders of the pro-Russian separatists will sign it on October 1.

The OSCE will be responsible for monitoring the withdrawal of weapons.

Weapons of over 100 milimetre calibre have already been withdrawn.

A meeting of the so-called Normandy format, which involves Germany, France, Ukraine and Russia are to meet on Wednesday in an attempt to make progress on reaching a political settlement to the crisis.

The latest ceasefire, which was declared on September 1, has largely been observed, while previous ones have been repeatedly violated by both sides.