After insisting for several days they had no intention of abiding by the Minsk ceasefire deal’s call to withdraw heavy weapons from the front lines, Ukraine’s military today began to move some of its artillery back.
The eastern rebels began moving their own heavy weaponry back on Sunday, and while neither side is likely to be finished with the move within the two-week term the Minsk deal called for, they will both be well on their way.
The ceasefire got off to a bit of a rocky start, with clashes around the disputed town of Debaltseve. Since the Ukrainian military withdrew from the town, which was surrounded before the ceasefire began, things have calmed dramatically.
Wednesday was the first day since the ceasefire began that there were no deaths on either side. Thursday continued that trend, and gave the military no excuse to finally abide by the Minsk deal and move the weapons back.
We'll see.
The fact that Mr Ditz keeps cling to the "no intention to abide by the ceasefire" line that he has been peddling for three days on the basis of a news report that said nothing of the sort suggests desperation in the pro-Putin camp. The fact that litle Vlad himself has once again started threatening to cut off the gas suggests a diversion. You don't need a diversion if you've won, so logically, he believes he didn't win. That suggests that the scam was that the Ukrainian army would move back its heavy weapons but the mercenaries would only pretend to move theirs and would in fact put them into position for a renewed attack once the Ukrainians had pulled back. Once it was clear that the Ukrainians weren't fooled, the scam was abandoned. In its turn, that, combined with Mr Ditz's obvious anxiousness to see the ceasefire hold, suggests that Putin is in deep trouble and desperately needs the ceasefire. If whoever is funding the mercenaries was willing to go on paying indefinitely or if Putin was willing to send in his rickety conscript army, then he would have no need for a ceasefire. Bottom line: Putin and his American supporters beleive that he is losing.
Quick; someone dial; "MERKEL-HOLLANDE" to break the news! Putin is losing! (You know; Putin's German and French supporters).
Feb 27, 2015 Civilians Return to Debaltseve
After a month of heavy fighting, the pro-Russia separatists of the Donetsk People's Republic (DNR) finally took the strategically important rail hub town of Debaltseve in eastern Ukraine.
In early January, the DNR had launched a winter offensive on Ukrainian positions, seizing the Donetsk airport and attacking Ukrainian checkpoints across the line of control separating the two sides. Once the airport had fallen, the DNR focused its attention on Debaltseve, surrounding the town on three sides and pounding it with artillery for four straight weeks. The attack killed dozens and forced thousands of residents to flee.
http://youtu.be/-ZjbYXF6yi0