Forces and equipment of the Ukrainian army and representatives of the separate areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions will be withdrawn from the contact line in Donbas within the next 13 days in three designated areas, as specified in the framework agreement achieved at the Trilateral Contact Group, Ukrainian Defense Ministry spokesman Andriy Lysenko has said.

"Yesterday, the Ukrainian negotiators achieved an agreement at the Trilateral Contact Group in Minsk. According to Ukrainian representatives, within the next 13 days the disengagement of forces will be done around Stanytsia Luhanska, Zolote and Petrovske in order to make firings from small arms impossible," Lysenko told a briefing conference in Kyiv on Thursday.

In a comment to Interfax-Ukraine Lysenko clarified that "the countdown of these 13 days will begin after the ceasefire regime has been strictly observed for one week" in the aforesaid areas.