(VOVworld) – According to Eduard Basurin, a top rebel commander, rebels in eastern Ukraine have begun a pullback of heavy weapons in accordance with the Minsk-2 agreement brokered on February 12 in Belarus which aims to create a wide buffer zone between the artilleries of the government and the separatists.

Fighters with the separatist self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic army ride in the back of a truck towing a mobile artillery cannon as they leave the frontline, and head toward Donetsk, Feb. 23, 2015 (photo: reuters)

A rebel website quoted Basurin as saying that some 100 122-mm howitzers would be involved, but that number has not been verified. Michael Bociurkiw, a spokesman for the international team monitoring the fighting, said he couldn't confirm any pullback before receiving monitors' reports, possibly at the end of the day.

At a press conference on Monday, Ukrainian military spokesman Anatoly Stelmach said Kiev will not pull back heavy weapons from the frontline in Donbass until there is a “full ceasefire”.