RIGHT SPEAK: Ukraine: No Troop Pull Back until Rebels Cease Fire

The Ukrainian government said it won't pull back its troops in war-torn provinces of eastern Ukraine as agreed in Minsk this weekend until rebels abide by a cease-fire in the region.

Fighting, meanwhile, continued to simmer in eastern Ukraine, a government spokesman said Sunday.

Andriy Lysenko, a spokesman for Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council, said the government "is not talking about" implementing the agreement in Minsk until a complete cease-fire is achieved.

Servicemen of the pro-Ukrainian Aydar battalion
patrol an area near the eastern Ukrainian town of
Scshastya in the region of Luhansk on Saturday.

Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

Both Kiev and Moscow have repeatedly declared that a cease-fire signed on Sept. 5 is working, despite widespread allegations that both Ukraine and Russian-backed gunmen are violating it.

The Minsk agreement, signed Saturday, was meant create a buffer zone free of heavy weaponry. But persuading militants on both sides to step back may be a tougher matter.

On Sunday, explosions and gunfire were heard outside the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, which Russian-backed rebels have been trying to take since last month, Ukrainian news services reported.

Mr. Lysenko said that rebels fired on government troops near 22 towns and villages on Saturday, and that Ukrainians returned fire in some instances. Rebels likewise accuse the government of shooting at and shelling their positions.

While both Russian-backed rebels and Ukraine publicly say they will abide by a cease-fire to end the conflict in Ukraine, both sides see disadvantages. For the Ukrainian government, an end to fighting would leave some major population centers of eastern Ukraine in rebel hands.

The rebels, meanwhile, had set their sites on much larger gains, seeking to control the entirety of two provinces, Donetsk and Luhansk. Today, they hold less than half of both.