KIEV officials and representatives of the People’s Republics of Lugansk and Donetsk in southeastern Ukraine have agreed to a ceasefire, as the contact group met behind closed doors in the Belarusian capital of Minsk.
The truce agreement came into force starting at 15.00 GMT yesterday.
A protocol to start a ceasefire at 3pm on Friday was signed. The protocol contains 14 items, including all aspects of control, exchange of prisoners and other issues.
The Donetsk People’s Republic has confirmed the ceasefire agreement on its official Twitter account.
The ceasefire came as an armoured group of self defence forces entered the southern Ukrainian port city of Mariupol.
‘Our group entered the districts of Talakovka and Sartana. They are a bit away from the Vostochny district, where self-defence forces clashed with Kiev troops, so our group met no resistance while entering Mariupol,’ a media statement said.
According to the ex-Ukrainian president, Leonid Kuchma, who served from 1994-2005, the Kiev authorities came to Minsk ‘for peace, to stop the military actions’ in the crisis-torn country.
He added that Kiev is ready for a ceasefire.
‘If the other sides are ready for a ceasefire, too, then our plan should be signed,’ he said, ‘We need to stop killing each other.’
Earlier, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko expressed ‘great hope’ that the peace process in Ukraine will commence in Minsk.
Meanwhile the NATO summit continued with its war plans.
The UK is to contribute 1,000 personnel to a new multi-national NATO rapid reaction force.
Prime Minister David Cameron said the NATO ‘multinational spearhead force’ could be deployed anywhere in two to five days.
‘We face new and evolving dangers. To the east, Russia is ripping up the rulebook with its annexation of Crimea and its troops on the sovereign soil of Ukraine. To the south, an arc of instability bends from North Africa to the Middle East.’
