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Separatists battling government troops in Ukraines eastern Donetsk region agreed to silence their artillery and said both sides could withdraw heavy weapons from the front line if shooting stopped for five days.

The pledge came as the United Nations said the conflict may have killed many more people than previously estimated. It also followed repeated unreciprocated attempts by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko to introduce a silence regime meant to precede the creation and monitoring of a 30-kilometer (19-mile) buffer zone between the two adversaries hammered out in a Sept. 5 cease-fire agreement in Minsk.

The silence regime should begin today, Interfax news service quoted Alexander Zakharchenko, the self-styled prime minister of the Donetsk Peoples Republic, or DPR as saying. If its observed for five days, the pullback of heavy artillery on both sides will begin.

While the truce has reduced the bloodshed in Ukraines easternmost regions, its been marred by daily violence. There have been at least 331 deaths since the deal was agreed, the UN estimates. Ukrainian forces repelled an assault by the pro-Russian insurgents against the Donetsk airport and more than 30 other attacks in eastern Ukraine yesterday, the military press center in Kiev said on Facebook. Separatists said they control most of the airport.

At least 3,682 people have been killed and 8,871 wounded in the conflict as of Oct. 8, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in a report on its website late yesterday. The UN said its estimate, based on official data that includes the Ukrainian army, armed groups, civilians and the 298 victims of Malaysian Air flight MH17, was very conservative and both it and the World Health Organization believe the numbers are considerably higher.

Serious cease-fire violations are reported daily, and shelling has intensified in parts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions, despite the September cease-fire, the UN said in its report.

A power station in Shchastya caught fire north of the city of Luhansk after it was shelled by tanks manned by fighters trained in Russia, the regions governor, Hennadiy Moskal, said in a website statement, yesterday. Luhansk is under the control of another group of rebels.

Russia also sent 40 buses with fighters and 30 military vehicles across the border into Ukraine in the past two days, military spokesman Andriy Lysenko said yesterday.

While Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putins government denies any involvement in the conflict, the U.S. and European countries have slapped it with economic sanctions for what they say is providing arms, weapons and fighters to the rebels to destabilize Ukraine and prevent it from deepening ties with the European Union and NATO.

The yield on Ukraines 2017 dollar bond jumped 1.22 percentage points to 15.58 percent yesterday, its biggest increase on a closing basis since Aug. 28, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Link:
Ukraine Rebels Silence Weapons to Open Way to Buffer Zone