Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said Wednesday that he has reached a permanent cease-fire agreement with Russian President Vladimir Putin over the conflict in eastern Ukraine. But Moscow officials said no specific deal was in place. After conflicting reports on a possible cease-fire deal for Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday that he and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko have agreed on a plan to settle the conflict and called on Kiev to pull out its troops from the disputed areas and for rebels to stop their military operations, particularly in Donetsk and Luhansk.
The Kremlin leader said he believes that the Contact Group on Ukraine -- currently meeting in Minsk, the Belarus capital -- would reach final agreements on the settlement plan at their next meeting on Friday, according to the Russian news agency ITAR-TASS. His remarks to reporters during a trip to Mongolia came shortly before President Obama, speaking in the former Soviet republic of Estonia, blasted what he called Russia's "brazen assault on the sovereign territory of Ukraine." Obama said Russia's action in Ukraine "challenges that most basic principle that border cannot be redrawn at the barrel of a gun."
As part of a seven-point plan, Putin said militants must end their military operations in the rebel strongholds of Donetsk and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine and that Ukrainian armed forces should pull back far enough to rule out the shelling of cities and villages. He also said military aircraft should not be used against civilians and population areas in the conflict zone, Interfax Russia reports. He said a final agreement should also include a full and impartial international monitoring of a cease-fire. In addition, the Russian leader said a deal should set up humanitarian corridors to allow for the movement of refugees and the delivery of supplies to the cities and towns of Donbass.
Putin's comments followed different accounts by Kiev and Moscow on a telephone call between the two heads of state, with Poroshenko saying a permanent cease-fire deal had been reached and Russia saying only the outlines of an agreement had been discussed. The different response to the cease-fire talk reflected the smoke-and-mirrors nature of the conflict, with Russia maintaining it cannot agree to a cease-fire because it is not directly involved in the fighting between Ukrainian troops and separatist rebels. Initially, Poroshenko said flatly on Twitter that , "As a result of my telephone conversation with Russian President we reached an agreement on a permanent cease-fire on Donbass.'" Donbass refers to the industrialized region of eastern Ukraine that has been the main battlefield in the months-long fight between Ukrainian troops and the Pro-Russian rebels that has left more than 2,600 people dead. It includes the main cities of Donetsk and Luhansk, which have been rebel strongholds. A subsequent statement released by Poroshenko's office said "mutual understanding was reached regarding the steps that will contribute to the establishment of peace."
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2014/09/03/ukraine-russia-cease-fire/15005501/
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