Ukraine crisis: Government troops and rebels to start withdrawing light weapons

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A Ukrainian government soldier fires a grenade launcher in the Donetsk region. Photo: August 2015Image copyrightAFP
Image captionA ceasefire in eastern Ukraine has been holding since September despite reports of occasional shelling
Ukraine's government troops and rebels in the east are expected to start withdrawing light weapons from the line of contact later on Saturday.
The move was announced at a meeting of leaders from Ukraine, Russia, Germany and France in Paris on Friday.
Weapons of less than 100mm (4in) calibre should be pulled out in stages and the process completed within 41 days, Ukraine said.
Moscow denies sending troops and heavy weapons to the pro-Russian separatists.
However, the Kremlin admits that Russian "volunteers" are fighting alongside the rebels in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
In a separate development, International monitors from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) said in a statement on Friday they spotted the powerful TOS-1 Buratino multiple rocket launcher in Luhansk.
A spokesman for the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) to Ukraine told the BBC the discovery was particularly significant because of the damage the rockets could cause.
The rebels have not commented on the OSCE report.

'Synchronised watches'

In Paris, Russian President Vladimir Putin met Ukraine's Petro Poroshenko, France's Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel for the first time since they agreed a peace deal for Ukraine in Minsk in February.
The so-called Normandy Four meeting assessed all elements of the deal, including the staging of local elections in the rebel-held regions and the withdrawal of heavy weapons from the line of contact.
(l-r) German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and French President Francois Hollande attend a meeting on Ukrainian crisis at the Elysee Palace in ParisImage copyrightEPA
Image captionThe "Normandy Four" leaders spend several hours discussing the key points of the Minsk peace deal
After the meeting, Mr Hollande said the pullout would start on Friday, with Mr Poroshenko later confirming this in a statement (in Ukrainian).
The government in Kiev and the pro-Russian rebels earlier finally agreed to withdraw weapons of less than 100mm calibre from the front line.
Mr Poroshenko said this process would then continue in stages and should be completed within 41 days.
He said the pullout would include not just artillery pieces "but also tanks and mortars".
Regarding the elections in the rebel-held areas, the French leader said they must be held according to Ukrainian law, as envisaged in the Minsk peace deal.
This point was reiterated by Mrs Merkel, who also noticed "progress" during the talks.
Mr Poroshenko said the four leaders had supported the idea of the elections based exclusively on Ukrainian legislation and in the presence of OSCE observers, who should be granted full access.
However, the rebels said before the Paris talks that they still intended to proceed with staging local elections on their terms.
Kiev says such elections - to be held on different dates from the rest of Ukraine and not according to Ukrainian law - would be "fake".
President Putin's office did not provide details of the Paris talks, saying only in a brief statement that the participants "synchronised watches" on the implementation of the key points of the Minsk deal.
A ceasefire in eastern Ukraine has been holding since September, although there have been reports of occasional shelling.
The clashes in the region began in April 2014, a month after Russia annexed Ukraine's southern Crimea peninsula.
mapImage copyrightBBbc

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