Kiev reserves right to return over-100mm-calibre weapons to front line

Ukraine’s authorities reserve the right “in case of a threat” to return to the front line weapons of calibre over 100mm, speaker of the Ukrainian presidential administration on the force operation in Donbass Alexander Motuzyanik told a briefing on Sunday.

He said Kiev had fulfilled the provision of the Minsk agreements on withdrawal of the weapons of the calibre, which, he said, the militia had not done. “Thus, we reserve the right in case of threat to lives and health of our military to return without delays those weapons and use them.”
On Friday, August 14, head of Ukraine’s National Security Council Alexander Turchinov said Ukraine will impose the martial law if the situation in Donbass aggravates.

Regular talks of the participants in the Trilateral Contact Group on the east Ukrainian settlement comprising representatives of Russia, Ukraine and the Organisation for Security and Co-Operation in Europe (OSCE) were held in the Belarusian capital city of Minsk on February 10-12. Talks of the Normandy Four (Russia, Germany, France, and Ukraine) leaders on the Ukrainian issue also ended February 12 in Minsk.

A 13-point Package of Measures on implementation of the September 2014 Minsk agreements was adopted at the February talks. The package in particular included an agreement on cessation of fire from February 15, withdrawal of heavy armaments, as well as measures on long-term political settlement of the situation in Ukraine, including enforcement of a special self-rule status for certain districts of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions. The ceasefire has been repeatedly violated since.