New agreement to further restrict weapons in Ukraine
2015-07-07
Posted by: badanov
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By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com
A new agreement to further restrict weapons used by both Ukrainian and rebel forces will be ready to sign today, according to Russian language news accounts.
The new agreement is said to require both sides to remove all artillery over 100mm, and all mortars and tanks with main guns over 85mm to points from the current line of contact sufficient to render them useless, according to a news account which appeared on korrespondent.net.
Both sides have considerable numbers of main battle tanks T-64s and T-72s, medium tanks which have 125mm main guns. Tanks are often used by both sides as direct fire artillery. Both sides already place their tanks in their respective rears to be used as fire brigades in case their forces suffer a reversal on the battlefield.
In a nervous environment such as southeastern Ukraine, tanks are still likely to be brought up quickly to the line of contact in large numbers as a response to enemy action. Tanks are already supposed to be left to the rear by virtue of the original Minsk ceasefire last September, 2014. The Ukrainian have repeatedly delayed implementing that part of the agreement, and the rebel claim they have done their part, but reports since then have said otherwise.
Of the mortar types, both sides use 120mm mortar in some numbers, likely the PM-43, one of the older artillery systems in the world still in use, with an effective range of six kilometers. The 82mm mortar, BM-37 is used in much larger numbers than the 120mm mortars, and it has a range of three kilometers.
Other weapons used in the Ukrainian civil war not considered to be small arms, but not included in the newest restrictions include the main gun for the Russian made infantry fighting vehicle BMP-1, which sports a 73mm cannon, and the 73mm SPG-9 recoilless rifle, which both sides have converted to have a indirect fire mount.
Inasmuch as the agreement addendum is ready to sign, doubts remain whether the two sides will sign and implement the new agreement.
Chief negotiator for the Donetsk People's Republic, Denis Pushilin was quoted in the korrespondent,net article as saying because the document is ready to be signed, doesn't mean it will be signed.
"...a compromise was found," said Pushilin.
Another part of the peace agenda still in discussion, especially for the rebel side are economic issues. For example, since last fall Ukraine suspended pension payments to residents of Donetsk in areas occupied by rebel forces, an act the rebels have repeatedly pleaded with negotiators to have reversed. The rebels have pointed to the Russian involvement in Chechnya, where, according to past news accounts, the Russian Federation continued paying pensions even in areas occupied by Chechen rebels during the 1st Chechen War.
Currently the governments of Donetsk and Lugansk, likely with the assistance of the Russian Federation, are paying a portion of pensions.
Now, according to the korrespondent.net report, the European Union will be asked to help with the restoration of basic utilities, such as water, which have been damaged in the fighting.
The deputy head of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) mission in Ukraine, Alexander Hug, was quoted in the korrespondent article as saying, though the "final steps" have not been taken by the parties, he hopes the agreement will be signed.
Fighting Continues in Donetsk
Exchanges of artillery fire and firefights in western Donetsk continued on Monday, according to official rebel reports and Russian language news accounts.
According to reports posted on its official website, the Donetsk Ministry of defense said that Ukrainian forces fired on rebel forces 62 times over the previous two days, hitting targets in Kievskiy district of Donetsk, Spartak and the airport, using artillery and crew served heavy weapons.
A subsequent ministry of defense report said that Ukrainian artillery and tanks hit rebel positions in Spartak and the Donetsk airport for about 30 minutes Monday night. No reports from either have emerged detailing any attacks.
Monday evening Ukrainian forces near Bogdanovka near Mariupol reported being attacked by a small rebel force, according to a news account posted on tsensor.net. The attack started at 1750 hrs, and ended at around 1930 hrs, and was driven back by Ukrainian forces.
In Mariupol, according to a separate account on tsensor.net, Ukrainian forces reported shooting down a rebel drone over the Sea of Azov.
Shirokino, abandoned by rebel forces in a purported act of good will, continues to be unoccupied by either side.
The Donetsk ministry of defense said that Ukrainian police units have been inside the village, but also charged that those police were engaged in looting.
According to data supplied by Donetsk minister of defense Vladimir Kononov, rebel forces reported observing Ukrainian forces looting abandoned residences in the area.
Shirokino sits in a large hollow, which aids in observation from either the west or the east. It was, according to rebel media, very difficult to defend, despite the fact that Ukrainian forces held for some weeks the western sectors, with the rebels failing repeatedly to dislodge them.
Three days ago it was reported that rebel forces had withdrawn their forces towards the nearby town of Sahanka, which had been suddenly under Ukrainian artillery fire for more than 10 days, so much artillery fire that a total of seven residences were destroyed, and the own all but abandoned. Now, according to rebel reports, those forces were never in Sahanka, but none of the reports indicate why Ukrainian forces would shell a town without a target of some kind.
Now, reports from both sides are that neither Sahanka nor Shirokino are beign shelled by either side.
Chris Covert writes about foreign military issues for Rantburg.com. He can be reached at grurkka@gmail.com and on Twitter. You can read past articles about the 2014 war in southeastern Ukraina by clicking here.
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