Pro-Russian separatists withdraw, tensions remain

(Vatican Radio) Ukraine's military says Russian-backed separatists have withdrawn from front-line villages near Ukraine's strategic port city of Mariupol, but the move did little to ease East-West tensions over Russia's alleged role in the conflict.

Listen to the report by Stefan Bos:

Ukrainian military spokesman Oleksandr Motuzyanyk said separatists “withdrew to the east", though he added that they left the strategic of Shyrokyne "completely destroyed".

Lying near the east of the Sea of Azov industrial port of Mariupol -- the target of repeated rebel attacks -- Shyrokyne has been one of the deadliest hotspots of the 15-month separatist conflict that has killed more than 6,000 people.

Some troops already doubt whether the surprise retreat and brief halt in fighting would last. In fact, separatists already warned that what they called "unilateral demilitarisation" by their side may not be enough to establish a lasting peace.

Russia has denied Western accusations that it supports the rebels with weapons and troops, though the Ukrainian security service named five Russian generals who allegedly oversaw military activities with separatist forces in eastern Ukraine.

Putin on sanctions

Russian President Vladimir Putin said, however, that western economic sanctions imposed after Russia's annexation of Ukraine's Crimean peninsula and fighting in eastern Ukraine has failed to split Russian society, while his foreign minister urge the West to pressure Kiev to implement a peace deal with rebels.

Moscow also opposes renewed calls by the Netherlands and earlier Malaysia to set up a United Nations Tribunal to punish those responsible for last year's downing of flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine in which nearly 300 people, most of them Dutch nationals, were killed.

Despite the troubles, Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko has reportedly said that he believes his country could apply for entry into the European Union within five or six years.

He spoke while meeting in Kiev with European Parliament president Martin Schultz who agreed that Ukraine should move closer to the EU. "The unlawful and illegal annexation of Crimea cannot prevent Ukraine to go the way in the direction to the European Union. And [it] can not prevent us to consider Ukraine as our ally, and [to continue] our cooperation based on our common European values," Schultz told reporters.

Yet, Ukraine's government is under pressure at home: overnight, 1,000 Ukrainian pro-government fighters and far-right supporters marched through the centre of the capital, Kiev to urge to end the Minsk ceasefire accord and declare war on pro-Russian rebels in the east.