KIEV, Ukraine
Government forces and separatists in eastern Ukraine have agreed on a plan to withdraw heavy weapons, according to Ukrainian military sources.
"An agreement has been reached with the self-proclaimed states of Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republic regarding the withdrawal of heavy weapons in line with the Minsk truce," military spokesman Andriy Lysenko said Sunday, adding that government forces planned to withdraw as of today.
Lysenko also said that one Ukrainian soldier was killed, and three others wounded in the last 24 hours amid separatist attacks on Ukrainian military positions.
Rebels breached the cease-fire 14 times within the past 24 hours, Lysenko said, adding that the situation was especially tense near the village of Shirokino, east of Mariupol. Attacks against this village had been thwarted by military forces, he added.
Meanwhile, deputy commander of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, Eduard Basurin, said that the withdrawal process had to be completed by March 7 in accordance with the plan agreed on between government forces and separatists.
The agreement comes a day after 139 Ukrainian troops were released in a war prisoner exchange deal between the two sides.
A cease-fire was signed between government forces and pro-Russian separatists in Belarus' capital Minsk on Feb. 12.
The cease-fire agreement includes the withdrawal of heavy weaponry from combat areas, the withdrawal of all foreign-armed formations and release of all hostages and unlawfully detained persons, as well as political reforms and decentralization in the eastern Ukrainian regions.
The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, or OSCE, which monitors the fighting in the region, said Thursday that it had not seen either side complying with terms of the cease-fire.
More than 5,300 people have been killed and 12,200 others injured in eastern Ukraine since mid-April last year in the ongoing conflict, according to the UN high commissioner for human rights.
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