Donetsk, Oct 12 – DAN. Ukrainian forces have deployed tanks, self-propelled howitzers, armoured vehicles and truckloads of ammunition to the frontline in the Donetsk and Mariupol directions, a senior military official of the Donetsk People’s Republic said on Wednesday.
“Our intelligence is revealing more facts of presence of prohibited Ukrainian weapons in the zone of the “anti-terrorist operation”, which have to be destroyed in case Ukraine uses them,” DPR Operations Command Deputy Chief Eduard Basurin said.
Fourteen armoured vehicles, including tanks and self-propelled howitzers have amassed near a pig farm in the village of Novosyolovkа Vtoraya (Donetsk direction), six kilometres away from the Contact Line. In the Mariupol direction, three armoured personnel carriers, three truckloads of ammunition and two tanks have been deployed to the village of Novosyolovkа, 10 kilometres from the Contact Line, according to the DPR official.
The information about the violation of the Minsk Agreements by Ukraine and the positions of the prohibited Ukrainian weapons has been passed to representatives of the OSCE mission and the Joint Centre for Control and Coordination, he added.
DPR intelligence reports Kiev’s regular deployment of military equipment to the conflict zone. Under The Package of Measures for the Implementation of the Minsk Agreements signed by the Contact Group on February 12, 2015, the sides have to withdraw their artillery systems of 100 mm calibre or more to a distance of 50 kilometres apart from each other, multiple launch rocket systems Tornado, Uragan and Smerch to a distance of 70 kilometres and Tactical Missile Systems Tochka to a distance of 140 kilometres. The Attachment to the Minsk Agreements signed in September provides for the parties’ withdrawal of their artillery systems of a calibre less than 100 mm, as well as tanks and mortars. Despite the accords, Ukraine regularly shells DPR areas using the above weapons.