Ukrainian truce 'in name only'

Ukrainian forces and rebels were due on Sunday to pull back under a new peace plan, but NATO's top military commander warned that there was a cease-fire "in name only" on the ground.

The warring sides are required to move back fighters and weaponry and create a buffer zone along the front line that splits the separatist east of Ukraine from the rest of country.

The withdrawal and an accompanying monitoring mission by teams from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe - a pan-European security body - are at the heart of a nine-point plan struck early on Saturday in the Belarusian capital of Minsk.

The deal is meant to reinforce a truce forged on Sept 5 in a bid to stem five months of conflict that has claimed nearly 3,000 lives and threatened Ukraine's very survival.

AFP reporters said the situation on the ground appeared calm early on Sunday, but it was not immediately known if there had been any movement of government troops or rebels.

NATO's top commander, General Philip Breedlove, said on Saturday on the sidelines of a NATO meeting in Lithuania that continued clashes had shown the two-week-old agreement to be a cease-fire "in name only".

At least 35 Ukrainians soldiers and civilians have been killed since the original truce was declared, and there is no reports on rebel casualties.

But he struck a more optimistic note when he spoke of Saturday's Minsk agreement. "It is our sincere hope and desire that ... the two combatants can come to agreement to again get to a ceasefire situation," he said.

The Minsk memorandum - signed by the warring parties and endorsed by both Moscow's Kiev ambassador and an OSCE envoy - also requires the withdrawal of all "foreign armed groups" and mercenaries from the conflict zone.

Demilitarized zone

Russia denies having any forces in Ukraine. It says a number of its troops captured by Kiev's forces must have accidentally strayed across the border.

Former Ukrainian president Leonid Kuchma - representing Kiev throughout the stuttering efforts to resolve the crisis - warned the Minsk deal would fall apart without the creation of a 30-km demilitarized zone.

Territory under rebel control would be left open to their administration under a temporary self-rule plan adopted by lawmakers in Kiev on Sept 16 in tandem with legislation that grants amnesty to fighters on both sides.

AFP - AP

(China Daily 09/22/2014 page12)