Rebels begin withdrawing weapons from front line
2015-07-21
Posted by: badanov
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By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com
Rebel forces in southeastern Ukraine will complete withdrawal of most of their tanks and infantry fighting vehicles by Tuesday, according to data supplied by the Donetsk ministry of defense web page.
Three days ago, rebel officials decided to withdraw all heavy weapons from the line of contact, including armor vehicles after failing to get a written agreement from the Ukrainians to do so.
The Minsk ceasefire agreement of February 15th, mandates all heavy weapons 100mm or larger be withdrawn to the respective sides' interior lines a sufficient distance to render them useless. Both sides have since abided by the agreement, except that the rebels have continually charged the Ukrainians have mobile artillery and tanks in positions where they can be brought to bear quickly.
Rebel officials have claimed since that time that they have refused to answer the nearly constant artillery fire from Ukrainian units, especially in locales such as Gorlovka and Donetsk city. The Ukrainians have claimed that their artillery fires on rebel positions after rebel artillery fires on theirs.
According to information in the Donetsk ministry of defense website, armor vehicles will be gone from such locations as Zaitsevo, which is northwest of Gorlovka, and from where a total of five tanks and 77 IFVs have left. According to a separate item, Ukrainian forces began firing artillery on the vehicles in a road march, but no details as to casualties have been released. Those vehicles will be withdrawn a total of three kilometers, beyond the range of the vehicles' main armament, including antitank guided missiles.
In the village of Styla Starobeshevskiy, which is south of Donetsk city, a total of four IFVs were withdrawn. A total of 41 tanks and 84 IFVs are to be withdrawn throughout Donetsk. Parts of Donetsk city and areas north of Debaltsevo will continue to have armor vehicles deployed.
Both sides have tanks with a 125mm main gun. Some tanks, including the T-72M and T-72B models are capable of firing antitank guided missiles (ATGM). Both sides also have BMP-1 and BMP-2 infantry fighting vehicles (IFVs). The BMP-1 has a 73mm cannon as its main gun and can fire an older generation ATGM, while the BMP-2 has a 30mm autocannon, and can fire the AT-5 ATGM.
The Ukrainians, for their part, have not withdrawn any weapons from the line of contact, because, according to Ukrainian Defense official Oleksandr Turchinov, they have not received orders to do so. Ukrainian president Piotr Poroshenko is commander in chief of Ukrainian forces and must give the order to withdraw those weapons.
Turchinov was quoted in a korrespondent.net news article expressing his doubt as to the motives of rebel officials, saying, "In case of failure of Russian commitments and peaceful solutions to the crisis created by the Kremlin, we are ready to repulse military aggression."
Fighting in Donetsk
Donetsk defense officials claim Ukrainian forces have violated the ceasefire almost 100 times since last Sunday.
According to data supplied by the Donetsk ministry of defense, Ukrainian artillery hit targets in Zaitsevo, the Petrovskiy district of Donetsk and at the Donetsk airport. Ukrainian artillery also was reported in Logvinovka and Gorlovka.
According to a news account posted on tsensor.net, rebels violated the ceasefire a total of 40 times on Monday including small arms attacks in Peski and Marinka, and artillery and mortar attacks on the coke plant in Avdievka. Another report said that three civilians were killed in the rebel shelling at Avdievka.
Major-General Andrei Taran, a Ukrainian defense officials said that rebels have "threatened to wipe Avdievka from the face of the earth."
A separate report said that a rebel infantry unit attacked a Ukrainian checkpoint at Volnovakha.
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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