KIEV, Sept 1 — Ukraine and pro-Russian rebels today said their forces were respecting a ceasefire aimed at halting a recent spike in fighting in time for the start of the new school year.
The warring sides agreed their latest temporary truce on August 26 in Minsk — the Belarussian capital where a February 2015 peace deal was agreed with the help of the leaders of Germany and France.
But that agreement and the subsequent series of temporary ceasefires have done little to halt a 28-month war that has claimed nearly 9,600 lives and driven about two million from their homes.
The previous truce announcement in April was later followed by two months of what monitors from the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) described as fighting that approached a full-scale war.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said in a statement that the September 1 school year truce “was holding as of 12.05pm (0905 GMT/1730 Malaysian time)”.
Militia commander Eduard Basurin confirmed on the rebels’ official news site that there were “no violations after midnight”.
Kiev said one soldier was killed and another injured in the hours running up to the latest truce.
The joint announcements may help calm tensions that were stirred by Moscow’s accusations last month of Ukraine plotting to invade Crimea — the Black Sea peninsula Russia annexed in March 2014.
Russian President Vladimir Putin had vowed retaliation and Poroshenko said he feared the resumption of the type of warfare that killed dozens on a nearly daily basis in 2014.
French President Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel said in a joint statement today that they hoped that this marked “the beginning of a lasting ceasefire”.
“France and Germany reaffirm their unwavering commitment to the service of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine,” the two leaders said.
Russia denies plotting or backing the conflict in retaliation for its former Soviet neighbour’s ouster of its Moscow-backed leadership in a February 2014 pro-EU revolt.
But Washington and Brussels have slapped stiff economic and other sanctions against Russian state companies and officials over Moscow’s annexation of Crimea and alleged intervention in eastern Ukraine. — AFP
