Ukraine Ceasefire on 'Thin Ice', Says OSCE

The ceasefire in eastern Ukraine between Kiev's forces and pro-Russian rebels is largely being observed but is still on "thin ice," an OSCE monitor said Thursday, one month after both sides agreed to the truce.

"The ceasefire holds broadly along the long contact line" in the eastern Donetsk and Lugansk regions, with crossfire continuing in some places but at a lower level, said Alexander Hug, deputy chief of the special monitoring mission the OSCE has dispatched to Ukraine.

The most critical locations were the village of Shyrokyne east of southeastern port of Mariupol and the areas surrounding the Donetsk airport, Hug said.

"In general it is positive that most of this fighting is being conducted with small arms and smaller caliber weapons and it's an indication that heavy weapons have actually been withdrawn and are not being used as often," he said in Kiev.

The OSCE (Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe) has been trying to monitor the pullback of large artillery but the mission was still being hindered by both sides, Hug said, and did not have full inventories of weapons nor full access to sites where they may be stored.

As a consequence, Hug said the "relative stability is at the moment on thin ice" and that returning big guns back to the frontline would not take long.

The EU-mediated agreement reached in Minsk on February 12 commits the warring parties to stop firing and pull back artillery with caliber greater than 100 millimeters 25 kilometers (15) away from the frontline.

Ukraine's security spokesman Andriy Lysenko said no soldiers had been injured or killed over the past day -- the first time in five days.