OSCE expects troop withdrawals from E. Ukraine village to start on Saturday

Troop withdrawals from a village in the Donbass region of eastern Ukraine will begin on Saturday at 1000 GMT, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said on Friday.

Ukraine and self-defense forces in Donbass have agreed to phased troop withdrawals as a confidence-building measure. The move could pave the way for a four-way summit between Ukraine, Russia, France and Germany on the conflict in eastern Ukraine.

The government in Kiev has said that the third such withdrawal, from the village of Petrovskoye and due to take place on Saturday, would mean that Ukraine has fulfilled all the necessary conditions on its side for such a summit to take place, Reuters said.

Officials in the self-proclaimed people’s republics of Donetsk and Lugansk said on Thursday that the beginning of troop withdrawals in the disengagement area near Petrovskoye had been endangered by “provocative actions” from the Ukrainian side.