Ukraine Ceasefire "In Name Only", Says NATO Commander
NATO's top military commander said Saturday that the two-week-old armistice between Ukraine and pro-Russian rebels fighting in the country's east is a cease-fire "in name only".
US Air Force Gen. Philip Breedlove, the Supreme Allied Commander of NATO in Europe, was speaking after a meeting with NATO military chiefs in Vilnius, Lithuania.
"The situation in Ukraine is not good right now," Breedlove said. "Basically, we have ceasefire in name only."
"The number of events, and the number of rounds fired and the artillery used across the past few days match some of the pre-ceasefire levels. The ceasefire is still there in name, but what is happening on the ground is quite a different story," he said, reports Reuters.
However, Breedlove expressed optimism on the memorandum signed on Saturday for the withdrawal of heavy weapons and all foreign fighters from the frontline to create a 30 km-wide buffer zone for strengthening the ceasefire agreement.
Breedlove said that Russian forces were operating inside eastern Ukraine even now. But the exact number of the forces cannot be determined.
"Right now the border is being maintained open by Russian forces and Russian-backed forces, and the fluidity of movement of Russian forces and Russian-backed forces back and forth across that border makes it almost impossible to understand the numbers," he said, reports the Associated Press.
Breedlove said that the number of Russian troops in Ukraine has dropped substantially over the past week, as some of them have gone back to the Russian side of the border.
He said that this was a god sign but cautioned that the Russian troops have not returned home and are still present in the area for any military action against Ukraine if the Russian government decides, reports AP.
Russia has continuously denied sending its troops to Ukraine or giving arms to pro-Russian rebels of Ukraine. It says that the Russians fighting alongside separatists in Ukraine were doing it in a personal capacity.
