Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko yesterday said a ceasefire plan aimed at ending a near five-month conflict in the east of the country would be signed today.
“Tomorrow in Minsk a document will be signed providing for the gradual introduction of the Ukrainian peace plan,” he said on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Wales.
“It is very important that the first element provides for a ceasefire,” he said.
Representatives of Kiev, Moscow, the separatist rebels and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe are due to meet in the Belarussian capital today.
“If the meeting takes place, I will issue instructions to the leadership of the general staff about a bilateral ceasefire,” Poroshenko told Ukrainian television.
He also said that NATO will adopt a declaration backing stronger military support for Kiev, a move that is likely to infuriate Moscow.
“In its declaration, NATO will confirm resolute bilateral steps by its member states to support military and technological assistance for Ukraine,” Poroshenko said. “This is exactly what we were waiting for.”
Senior rebel leaders said they would order a ceasefire in eastern Ukraine today if agreement is reached with Kiev at talks in Minsk, Alexander Zakharchenko, the head of the self-declared People’s Republic of Donetsk, and Igor Plotnitsky, leader of the self-proclaimed People’s Republic of Luhansk, said in a statement on a separatist Web site.
However, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov yesterday said that statements by officials in Kiev that Ukraine will be seeking to join NATO are “a blatant attempt to derail all the efforts” to seek a peaceful solution to the fighting.
Facing major challenges with conflicts in Ukraine, Syria and Iraq and a winding down of operations in Afghanistan, NATO leaders were meeting at a golf resort in southern Wales.
Poroshenko attended a meeting with US President Barack Obama and the leaders of four major European powers in the alliance: British Prime Minister David Cameron, French President Francois Hollande, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi before the summit’s official proceedings began.
NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen yesterday accused the Russians of continued meddling in Ukraine despite Russian President Vladimir Putin’s proclamation of a peace plan.
“What counts is what is actually happening on the ground,” he said.
Additional reporting by Reuters and AP
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