Attacks have minified because a tranquility deal was in fact brokered in Minsk, Belarus, five years ago, but the sides generally attack one other of infringement.
Advertisement
More than 6,400 people have been killed since the war started in April 2014, according to the United Nations.
The separatist group, the self-described Donetsk People’s Republic, said through its official information agency that 19 buildings had been damaged, including a hospital.
He said separatists had focused their attacks on residential areas north-west of rebel-held Donetsk city and that one serviceman, a woman, her granddaughter and a 49-year-old man had been killed.
Kyiv forces have not received orders to pull their own guns back, in response to the alleged rebel move, a Ukrainian army spokesman said on Sunday. “For that, [we are ready] to pull back our units with tanks and armored vehicles, equipped with weapons under 100mm calibre, to at least three kilometres (1.9 miles) from the front line”, a statement from the rebel forces said, as cited by RIA Novosti.
Senior rebel commander Eduard Basurin denied separatists were responsible for the attacks.
Ukraine and pro-Russian rebels have accused each other of shelling residential areas despite a ceasefire, with four civilians and one soldier among the dead following a week of the deadliest fighting in over a month.
Both sides had already agreed to withdraw the larger weapons, above the 100-mm limit, in February.
He also called on his Ukrainian counterpart to “resolve the questions concerning the constitutional reform project”, aimed at offering more autonomy to the separatist regions, which Russian Federation dismissed last week as just a parody of its obligations under the Minsk truce agreement.
Advertisement
But neither side has fully complied with the agreement, according to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. “Do you believe we can shell ourselves?”, he told Reuters by phone.
