2015-10-03 09:00:00

New weapons overshadow Ukraine peace summit


(Vatican Radio)  International monitors from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) have warned that Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine have new weapons including a feared rocket launcher that could cause massive damage. It was not immediately clear how the developments could impact the outcome of a long awaited peace summit in Paris where Ukraine's president announced the start of withdrawal of heavy weapons and leaders spoke of postponing local elections in Ukraine to ease tensions.    

Listen to Stefan Bos' report:

OSCE observers said they have seen the powerful TOS-1 Buratino multiple rocket launcher in Ukraine's now rebel-held city of Luhansk.

In published remarks the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine called the discovery particularly significant because of the damage the rockets could cause.

Kiev has long accused Russia of supplying the pro-Russian separatists with weapons and troops, charges Moscow denies. 

It was not immediately clear whether the news of new weapons would delay the withdrawal of heavy weapons such as tanks. 

Presidential pledge

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has pledged the government side would begin the pullback from key front lines on Saturday, but his office already cautioned it could take as many as 41 days to complete the task. 

Poroshenko's announcement came after Friday's summit in Paris where he met Russian President Vladimir Putin as well as French President Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. 

It was their first meeting since the leaders worked out a shaky peace deal in Minsk, Belarus in February.

Amid the tensions French President Hollande told reporters that local elections planned to be held in Ukraine  this month wuld likely be postponed until 2016 or the end of this year due to Kiev's standoff with Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine.

Electoral laws

“The elections scheduled for October, cannot go ahead, since the conditions we expected are not in place. However elections are being organised and new electoral laws discussed.”

German Chancellor Merkel also expressed some optimism and spoke of progress to end a conflict that has killed thousands of people. “It was an important day, we had a very intense discussion about every step necessary to achieve peace," she explained.

"It is always like this you have to review the process. It was like this after Minsk and it will be like this after Paris. You get guarantees only when things are done,” Merkel added.

The conflict in Ukraine's industrial heartland between Russia-backed separatists and government troops, which has killed more than 8,000 and displaced 2 million, began in April 2014, a month after Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula.








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