Ukraine Clashes Continue despite Truce
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - Fighting in Ukraine is continuing and a ceasefire signed on September 5 to end fighting between the army and pro-Russia separates is "in name only", NATO's top military commander said.
"The situation in Ukraine is not good right now," US Air Force General Philip Breedlove told reporters in Vilnius.
"Basically, we have ceasefire in name only," Breedlove, who is NATO's Supreme Allied Commander, Europe, and commander of US forces in Europe, said.
"The number of events, and the number of rounds fired and the artillery used across the past few days match some of the pre-ceasefire levels. The ceasefire is still there in name, but what is happening on the ground is quite a different story."
Breedlove said he hopes a memorandum signed on Saturday for the withdrawal of heavy weapons, including artillery, and all foreign fighters from a 30 kilometre-wide buffer zone will help calm the situation.
Under the deal, the longer-range artillery systems are to be pulled even farther back to make sure the parties can not reach one another. The deal also specifically bans flights by combat aircraft over the area of conflict and setting up new minefields.
Al Jazeera's Robin Forestier-Walker, report from the eastern district of Donetsk, said "today has been a day with a potential for peace, with an agreement signed in Minsk, to create a buffer zone between the side. But we’ve been still hearing shell fire and a very loud explosion was reported in Donetsk, of what may have been an munitions factory."
A local official in Donetsk, the largest rebel-held city, attributed the loud explosion to a munitions factory said was hit by an artillery shell. It was unclear which side fired it. Explosions were heard in three areas of the city in the afternoon, the city council said.
