Ukraine factions ease fight
Guns fell silent in eastern Ukraine for the second time during the week as government forces and pro-Russian separatists said they were pulling back weapons from the conflict area in line with a Feb. 12 cease-fire.
Militia in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic began a new stage of withdrawing heavy arms Saturday morning, according to the separatist-run DAN news service. Ukraine’s defense minister said rebels had stopped firing on government positions. On Friday, the government in Kyiv said rebel artillery, mortar, and tank fire had killed three of its soldiers and wounded seven in violation of a truce agreement sealed in Minsk, Belarus.
“From midnight to this morning, when I arrived at the Ground Forces Academy in Lviv, there were no cases of shelling of our positions,” news service Interfax cited Ukrainian Defense Minister Stepan Poltorak as saying from the western Ukrainian city.
A pause in fighting may give Ukraine breathing space to deal with a spiraling currency crisis and the threat of Russia cutting off natural gas supplies. The European Union and the U.S. have threatened to intensify sanctions against Russia if President Vladimir Putin doesn’t use his sway to help stop the conflict, which has killed more than 5,600 people and brought ties between the Cold War foes to their lowest level since the fall of the Iron Curtain.