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Ceasefire expires in south-east Ukraine

The decree on ceasefire took effect at 10pm on June 20

Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko (left) at the center of the military operation on June 20 ITAR-TASS/Mikhail Markiv

Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko (left) at the center of the military operation on June 20

© ITAR-TASS/Mikhail Markiv

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KIEV, June 27. /ITAR-TASS/. The term of the ceasefire, that Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko declared, has expired in the south-east of the country on Friday.

The decree on ceasefire took effect at 10pm on June 20. The document noted that “if an armed attack is delivered on Ukrainian military forces or civilians, troops will return the fire."

On June 21, Petro Poroshenko presented a plan of peaceful settlement in southeast Ukraine, in which he pledged to provide security guarantees for the participants in the talks and relieve fighters who have not committed any grave crimes and who voluntarily lay down arms from criminal prosecution; create a 10-kilometer buffer zone on the Russian-Ukrainian border; release all hostages and create a guaranteed corridor to enable Russian and Ukrainian mercenaries to leave the territory of Ukraine. Poroshenko’s peace plan also says that all unlawfully-occupied buildings in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions should be vacated to make it possible for the local government bodies to resume their work. Other measures under Poroshenko’s peace plan include renovation of the system of central television and radio broadcasting in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions; steps to decentralize power; early local and parliamentary elections, creation of new jobs in the region and restoration of industrial facilities and social infrastructure.

The three-party talks have also started in the framework of Poroshenko's peace plan. The trilateral contact group includes the former Ukrainian President, Leonid Kuchma, the Russian Ambassador in Kiev, Mikhail Zurabov, and the special envoy of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Heidi Tagliavini.

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Ukraine crisis Ukraine Pyotr Poroshenko

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