The withdrawal of armored vehicles and weapons with calibers under 100mm began in Luhansk region on Monday, press officer of the anti-terrorist operation (ATO_)in Donbas Ruslan Tkachuk said.

"A message signaling the withdrawal of armored vehicles and armaments to a distance of 15 kilometers from the contact line was received by Ukrainian Armed Forces units stationed in Sector A in the morning of October 5. So, the synchronous withdrawal of T-64 and T-72 tanks from the frontline and, in some areas, of 85mm D-48 and D-44 anti-tank guns and 82mm 2B-9 mortars began in Luhansk region at 11 a.m. today. The entire action was coordinated with members of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission. Media representatives are at work," says a report posted on the official website of Tkachuk.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said after the October 2 negotiations in Paris that Ukraine would start the withdrawal of weapons smaller than 100mm in caliber from the contact line in Donbas on October 3. He said the 'Normandy format' leaders had agreed on withdrawing light weapons within 41 days.

Preparations started on October 3. For instance, lists of armaments due to be pulled back from the contact line to distances of at least 15 kilometers were drawn up and harmonized with members of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission.

The army operation press center said on October 4 that the end of hostilities and direct shelling incidents make it possible to launch the scheduled withdrawal of hardware and armaments under 100mm in caliber.

Before the withdrawal actually started, the conflicting sides had submitted to the OSCE the lists of their armaments and hardware to be moved to designated areas at least 15 kilometers away from the contact line.