MOSCOW, September 4 (RIA Novosti) – The self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) favors the creation of a 50-kilometer (30-mile) demilitarized zone at its borders to prevent provocations and shelling of its territory, a spokesman for the republic told RIA Novosti Thursday.
The spokesman said the ceasefire in practice is possible “as soon as the Ukrainian troops are withdrawn to the distance from which they won’t be able to use long-range artillery, which it at least 50 kilometers away from the DPR borders.”
According to the official, all heavy weaponry should be withdrawn beyond the 50-kilometer-wide stretch of demilitarized land along the republic’s border with Ukraine.
“This is needed to prevent possible provocations and bombing of the republic’s territory,” he said.
Kiev has been using heavy weaponry, including artillery, tanks, rockets and missiles, against independence supporters in Ukraine’s eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, according to UN.
Thousands of people have been affected by continuous shelling by the Ukrainian Armed Forces, while the southeastern regions are currently in a state of humanitarian catastrophe, with citizens struggling without water and electricity.
The conflict has already claimed more than 2,500 lives, according to UN statistics published last week.
Earlier on Thursday, the leaders of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk people’s republics said they were ready to order a ceasefire on Friday afternoon if a peace plan was signed during negotiations in Minsk on September 5. They also said they would submit their proposals on the ceasefire regime to the Contact Group in Minsk.
The same day, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said he would be able to order a ceasefire on Friday starting from 2 p.m. local time (11:00 GMT) Friday.
