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Ukraine peace plan does not threaten country’s integrity - Poroshenko

The leadership of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk People’s republics, in turn, said the agreement is not a reason to give up their urge for independence from Kiev

© EPA/YOAN VALAT

LONDON, September 05, /ITAR-TASS/. Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko said Friday in an interview with the BBC’s HARDtalk program that the peace plan for Ukraine is a basis for political dialogue and does not threaten his country’s territorial integrity.

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Poroshenko says ready to carry out full exchange of prisoners of war Saturday

The interview was recorded Friday afternoon prior to the announcement of a ceasefire in Ukraine’s war-torn southeast.

The trilateral Contact Group on Ukraine (Russia, Ukraine and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe) reached an agreement in Minsk on Friday on cessation of fire, troops withdrawal, exchange of prisoners and provision of humanitarian aid, the OSCE said today.

The leadership of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk People’s republics, in turn, said the agreement is not a reason to give up their urge for independence from Kiev.

The Contact Group’s meeting came two days after Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested his seven-item plan to settle the crisis in Ukraine after a phone conversation with his Ukrainian counterpart Pyotr Poroshenko on Wednesday.

Fierce clashes between troops loyal to Kiev and local militias in the southeastern Ukrainian Donetsk and Lugansk regions during Kiev’s military operation to regain control over the breakaway territories have killed hundreds of civilians, brought massive destruction and forced hundreds of thousands to flee Ukraine’s embattled southeast.

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