Ukraine Truce Holds as Weapons Pullback Proceeds for Second Day
(Bloomberg) — The latest attempt at peace in Ukraine’s
easternmost regions appeared to take hold as the military
withdrew heavy weapons from the front lines for a second day.
The situation in the conflict zone was “relatively calm”
during the night, with less shelling and only sporadic
violations of the cease-fire by “uncontrolled” groups,
Ukrainian officials said on Friday. While Russian Foreign
Minister Sergei Lavrov on Thursday accused the U.S. and Europe
of seeking to derail dialog, he said the peace deal was showing
tangible results and there are no “ideal truces.”
Guns falling silent would mark the biggest progress since
the leaders of Ukraine, Russia, Germany and France sealed the
cease-fire in Minsk, Belarus, during all-night talks on Feb. 12.
Since then, insurgents have seized a key transport hub and the
U.S. and the European Union have threatened to impose more
sanctions against Russia, which denies backing the rebels
militarily. The hryvnia has hit record lows as the government in
Kyiv races to obtain emergency funding.
“Today we will continue to pull back our troops,” Serhiy
Halushko, a spokesman for the Defense Ministry in Kyiv, told
reporters on Friday. “In a few hours mass media will show how
we are pulling back our new artillery columns.”
The lack of progress in recent weeks on bringing peace to
the regions of Donetsk and Luhansk has further hurt Ukraine’s
currency. The nation is still awaiting the first cash from a
$17.5 billion rescue by the International Monetary Fund and
investors are nearing talks to ease terms on the government’s
foreign debt.
Situation ‘Stabilizing’
“Ukrainian military forces retain enough forces and
equipment along the contact line in case the terrorists, backed
by Russian troops, violate cease-fire conditions,” Halushko
said.
The hryvnia has plunged about 53 percent this year alone
amid a deepening recession and international reserves at the
lowest in at least a decade. The central bank lifted a ban on
foreign-currency trading late Wednesday, hours after it imposed
the restriction that aimed to stem the hryvnia’s freefall.
Ukrainian lawmakers will convene for an extraordinary
session on March 2 to consider budget and tax amendments as well
as discuss the financial state of national energy company NAK
Naftogaz Ukrainy, according to parliament’s website.
Gas Dispute
In another drag on Ukraine’s shrinking economy, President
Vladimir Putin urged the government in Kyiv Wednesday to ensure
energy supplies to rebel-held areas and said Russian gas
shipments to Ukraine would stop if the country doesn’t make
prepayments, a move that may threaten transit to Europe. State-run OAO Gazprom said Thursday it’s ready to discuss separate
shipments for Ukraine and rebel-held territory.
The European Commission said Ukraine and Russia confirmed
that they will both join three-way talks with the EU to discuss
gas supplies in Brussels on Monday.
Ukraine had said the cease-fire must be fully adhered to
for two days before it could pull weapons back behind pre-determined buffer zones.
Pro-Russian rebels respected the cease-fire “in general”
at night, Anatoliy Stelmakh, a spokesman for Ukraine’s military,
said by phone on Friday. “At the same time uncontrolled groups
of fighters are making sporadic provocations, shelling Ukrainian
positions.”
‘Mutual Actions’
The separatists say they’ve removed 400 pieces of heavy
arms from the front lines and urged monitoring by the
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. The rebels
continue to restrict access for observers, the OSCE said.
“Today we have to commend both sides that they have now
done something that hasn’t been done before,” Alexander Hug,
the OSCE’s deputy chief monitor in Ukraine, said on Russian
state-run television broadcaster RT. “We see now mutual actions
toward compliance with the Minsk arrangements.”
Even so, EU President Donald Tusk said Wednesday that he’s
“very skeptical” about the cease-fire. More sanctions against
Russia over the 11-month crisis, which has killed more than
5,600 people, are still “on the table,” he said.
A rebel move to take the port of Mariupol, or a similar
attack, “would immediately merit a much more significant
response, which is teed up, and that could be a very serious
next level of sanctions coupled with other choices the president
may or may not make,” U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said
Wednesday in Washington. President Barack Obama hasn’t decided
whether to supply defensive weapons to Ukraine, he said.
The EU and the U.S. aren’t willing to push for
implementation of the Minsk accord, Lavrov told reporters
Thursday, accusing them of making “farcical demands.”
To contact the reporters on this story:
Volodymyr Verbyany in Kyiv at
vverbyany1@bloomberg.net;
Daryna Krasnolutska in Kyiv at
dkrasnolutsk@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Balazs Penz at
bpenz@bloomberg.net
Andras Gergely, Michael Winfrey