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. VPC
Ukrainian servicemen from the Azov Battalion train volunteers on Sept. 1, 2014 in the southeastern Ukrainian city of Mariupol.(Photo: AFP/Getty Images)
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 hoped 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.
"I believe that the Kiev authorities and southeastern Ukraine will reach final agreements [on the settlement of the situation] at the upcoming meeting of the Contact Group on Ukraine on Sept." Putin said, according to the Russian news agency ITAR-TASS.
He added that 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.
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."
Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov later confirmed that the two leaders did discuss steps on the possible basis for a cease-fire but said "Russia cannot physically agree on a cease-fire because it isn't a party in the conflict."
Significantly, Vladimir Antyfeyev, a senior leader of the Russia-backed rebels whom Ukrainian forces have been fighting since April, told the Associated Press he could not say whether the separatists would adhere to a cease-fire because he was not commanding the forces. "But I definitely welcome this," he said. Rebel fighters ignored a previous truce called for in June.
Ukraine and the West say that Russia has been sending troops and weapons to support pro-Russian insurgents fighting Kiev's forces in eastern Ukraine since mid-April. Moscow has consistently denied this charge.
President Obama, who was in Estonia Wednesday holding security talks with the leaders of the three Baltic countries that sit on Russia's western frontier, said it was too early to tell what the announcement meant. He noted previous unsuccessful attempts and questioned whether pro-Russian separatists would abide by any cease-fire.
"We haven't seen a lot of follow-up on so-called announced cease-fires," Obama said. "Having said that, if in fact Russia is prepared to stop financing, arming, training, in many cases joining with Russian troops, activities in Ukraine and is serious about a political settlement, that is something we all hope for."
Obama expressed "unwavering" and "eternal" support for the U.S.'s commitment to defend Estonia under a NATO charter that deems an attack on one member of the alliance to be an attack on all.
Obama's visit to the Baltic state comes ahead of a NATO summit in Wales later this week.
Contributing: The Associated Press
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