The ceasefire has not been fully respected. Weapons went silent just for few hours but then started “talking” again. The city of Debaltseve, which is a strategic crossroads on the frontline, saw fierce fighting until this morning, when regular forces started carrying out President Poroshenko’s order to fall back.

The withdrawal of all heavy weapons has not been carried out so far. Today, separatist forces said they had started such operation as decided in Minsk but Kiev took such piece of news with scepticism since is seems that both parts were not so much into the idea of withdrawing their weapons until a full ceasefire would be respected by the opposite side.

OSCE’s inspectors have not been allowed to fulfil their monitoring duties. Despite OSCE’s Chairman Ivica Dacic called both sides to collaborate, according to the news coming from Ukraine separatists stopped inspectors from entering the city of Debaltseve.

Although it may be possible to see some positive signals in what happened today, the very next hours will be crucial. To give Minsk agreements a chance, it is vital that separatist forces will settle on the Donetsk-Seleznyev line without crossing it and that Ukrainian army will not try to retake control over lost positions. At the same time, OSCE inspectors should be allowed to get their job done.