Truce being maintained in Ukraine, situation remains complicated – Lithuanian ForMin

“The fact that the truce has come into force I see as a positive thing, and at least for now we see no attempts to escalate the situation, except for isolated shootings. We can state the truce is being maintained as of 3 a.m., and now we have to observe the situation and see what will happen next,” Linkevičius told BNS.

He said, however, that one should not jump to evaluations and estimates on how the situation in Ukraine might progress.

“We are keeping close contact with Ukraine and are observing the situation. Last night, at around 2 a.m., there were reports that the truce was being violated but it emerged later that they were not systemic attacks and they could not be considered organized actions directed against the ceasefire. Both sides conclude now that the truce is being maintained,” the Lithuanian foreign minister said.

Following the truce, equally important withdrawal of weaponry must start soon, Linkevičius said.

“Then we’ll see how it goes. On the eve of the truce, the situation worsened and fighting escalated significantly, more of Russian military equipment was deployed near Debaltseve and that promised nothing good. So it’s not clear as yet how everything will be here,” Linkevičius told BNS.

Pro-Russian separatists and Kiev agreed on a ceasefire on Thursday following marathon talks involving the Russian, Ukrainian, German and French leader in the Belarusian capital of Minsk.

The truce officially came into force at Sunday midnight (local and Lithuanian time).