Ukraine: Army retreats, buffer zone deal reached

DONETSK, Ukraine, Jan. 22 (UPI) -- Ukrainian troops withdrew Thursday from Dontesk airport's main terminal after fighting killed six soldiers and injured 16, the defense ministry said.

The army still controls parts of the symbolic but ruined suburban airport in the eastern Ukrainian city, which has seen significant combat between pro-Russian separatists, who received reinforcements of personnel and armaments in recent days, and Ukrainian troops. At least nine civilians died in Donetsk when artillery shells struck a bus.

Ukraine claims 9,000 regulars of the Russian army are involved in the fight against the Ukrainian army, which Russia denies. While fighting continued, diplomats in Berlin agreed to a line of demarcation, as defined by a peace treaty, since broken repeatedly, in September in Minsk, Belarus. Heavy armaments will be pulled back, by both sides, to create a 15-kilometer (nine-mile) buffer zone, although there was no agreement on the withdrawal of troops. Ukraine, Russia, France and host nation Germany, the four parties to the talks, each participated in a joint call for an end to fighting.

"Today we have finally agreed that the demarcation line mentioned in the Minsk agreement is the line from where the withdrawal of heavy weapons needs to take place now," German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said after the meeting, acknowledging the agreement was "difficult work" that "tested the patience of all involved."

Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry condemned the rebels on Wednesday.

"This is a very blatant land grab, and it is in direct contravention to the Minsk agreements which they signed up to," he said.

At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Wednesday, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko gave an emotional speech, describing the past year as the most difficult in the nation's history.

He said 7% of its territory is effectively occupied: "If this is not aggression, what is aggression?"