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Ukraine is preparing to withdraw artillery in the east as violations of a truce between the government and rebels failed to halt momentum toward a settlement of the countrys worst conflict since World War II.

The army said it will move heavy weaponry to the edge of a buffer zone. Casualties are a fraction of the level seen before the Sept. 5 truce and groups that may not be controlled by the militants or Russia were mostly responsible for the breaches, President Petro Poroshenko said. Shelling of towns in the Donetsk region has dropped by an order of magnitude, said Andrei Purgin, a senior official in the self-proclaimed Peoples Republic of Donetsk, according to RIA Novosti.

Fighting in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, which started after Russia annexed Crimea in March, is at a stalemate. More than 3,200 people were killed and 8,000 injured, according to the United Nations. The deal to create a demilitarized zone of 30 kilometers (18 miles) was reached Sept. 20 in Minsk, Belarus.

Both Kiev and Moscow have an interest in relative calm in the short term, but their longer-term objectives remain fundamentally at odds, Eurasia Group analysts led by Alexander Kliment said by e-mail. The buffer zone agreement reached in Minsk will likely support the current highly tenuous cease-fire, at least through the Ukrainian Rada elections in late October.

The fighting has caused about $440 million of damage in the conflict zone, where more than 70 percent of businesses have shut down and the availability of food is fragile, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in a report dated Sept. 19.

More than 275,000 people have been internally displaced, though the number can be assumed to be much higher because of the lack of a registration system, according to the report. About 341,000 people have fled abroad, including more than 300,000 to Russia, it said.

Russia has granted refugee status to more than 110,000 Ukrainians, Federal Migration Service chief Konstantin Romodanovsky said in an interview with Rossiyskaya Gazeta.

The Ukrainian army has set up checkpoints to maintain the buffer zone, military spokesman Vladyslav Seleznyov said yesterday on Facebook. Illegal, uncontrolled armed groups are shelling Ukrainian positions, with troops only opening fire in response, he said.

The preparation to pull back heavy weapons is under way, Andriy Lysenko, spokesman for the National Security and Defense Council, told reporters yesterday in Kiev.

While separatists are retreating from non-strategic positions, two soldiers have been killed and another two wounded, according to Lysenko. No shelling or violations of Ukraines airspace have been reported from Russia, he said.

Originally posted here:
Ukraine to Shift Artillery From Frontline as Truce Holds