Photo from UNIAN
Ukraine will maintain a military presence in a 30-kilometer-wide buffer strip, which is now being formed along the contact line in Donbas, Anti-Terrorist Operation (ATO) press officer Dmytro Hutsuliak said at a briefing in Kyiv on Tuesday, according to an UNIAN correspondent.
"Our soldiers will remain there [in the buffer zone] in full gear, with weapons, assault rifles and machine guns, and will continue to hold their positions. In addition, a permanent observation post of the OSCE [Special Monitoring] Mission and the Joint Centre for Control and Coordination of the Ceasefire [and Stabilization of the Parties' Demarcation Line] is to be established in the village of Shyrokyne [near the Ukrainian-controlled city of Mariupol]," Hutsuliak said.
"One of the best Ukrainian units – the Ukrainian Marine Corps – will soon arrive to defend Shyrokyne," he said.
Hutsuliak also announced a press tour to visit advanced Ukrainian positions in Shyrokyne this week.
"Mariupol is of strategic importance to Ukraine, the best forces are engaged to defend it. Those guys who defended it in the last months have deserved the rotation," the press officer said.
As UNIAN reported earlier, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko instructed the Ukrainian members of the Trilateral Contact Group for the settlement of the Donbas conflict to sign an agreement that would guarantee the creation of a 30-km-wide buffer strip along the contact line in Donbas.
"I hope that this will be the beginning of the real ceasefire, the withdrawal of heavy machinery and artillery, the release of hostages illegally kept by the occupiers, and effective control of the OSCE over the fulfilment of such agreements. Then, such steps will ensure potential economic and political reintegration of such territories and their return to Ukraine," he said.