Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin have agreed on a permanent cease-fire in eastern Ukraine, according to the Ukrainian presidency.
The two presidents agreed on a cease-fire in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions on Wednesday during a telephone conversation, according to a statement published on the presidency’s official website.
“The parties reached a mutual understanding on the steps that will facilitate the establishment of peace,” the statement said.
Putin and Poroshenko had previously met in Belarus at the end of August to reach an agreement over the crisis in eastern Ukraine, but ultimately failed to reconcile their opposing views, had said Belarus’s President Alexander Lukashenko.
Kiev launched military operations in the eastern provinces of Donetsk and Luhansk in mid-April to restore government control after pro-Russian separatists declared independence in the region.
The operations had been relatively successful in pushing the separatists back. However, amid recent accounts of the presence of Russian troops on Ukrainian soil, government forces have begun to lose ground.
www.aa.com.tr/en/politics
