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February 16, OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine (SMM) recorded that Russian-backed militants pulled a hundred pieces of military equipment out of the storage sites. OSCE SMM stated it in its daily report.
“The SMM continued to monitor the withdrawal of weapons in implementation of the
Memorandum and the Package of Measures and its Addendum. Beyond withdrawal lines but outside designated storage sites, in non-government-controlled areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions, the SMM saw 82 tanks, 38 pieces of artillery, and ten self-propelled howitzers,” reads the message.
“Following agreement reached at the meeting of the Trilateral Contact Group on 22 July 2020 regarding Measures to strengthen the ceasefire, from 00:01 on 27 July 2020 until the end of the reporting period, the SMM has recorded at least 108,741 ceasefire violations in both Donetsk and Luhansk regions,” reads the report.
Read also: Ukraine sees no withdrawal from its borders, – president Zelensky
February 16, Russia’s defence ministry published footage of what it said were tanks, armored personnel carriers, and mobile artillery leaving the Crimean peninsula — which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014 — and returning to their bases.
Russia has not taken its “foot off the gas” over a potential invasion and Ukraine and the UK hasn’t “seen evidence” of a withdrawal of forces, UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace has warned.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg ahead of the meetings of NATO Defence Ministers in Brussels underlined Alliance sees no signs of de-escalation on Ukraine-Russia border.
Read also: Ukraine forces in missile launch exercise near border with Russia
Tensions between Russia-Ukraine and the West escalated over the weekend after Western media reports claimed that Moscow could launch an attack on Ukraine on February 16. Moscow recently amassed 130,000 troops near Ukraine, prompting fears that the Kremlin could be planning another military offensive against Kyiv.
