KIEV, June 20. /ITAR-TASS/. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko announced a ceasefire in Ukraine’s embattled Southeast from today until June 27, according to a statement posted on the Ukrainian Interior Ministry’s website.

Poroshenko said “this is done for terrorists to be able to lay down arms, and those who fail to do so will be eliminated.”

He said during the ceasefire, “combat operations will only be carried out for retaliation.”

Poroshenko is staying in Svyatogorsk, the Donetsk region, the ICTV channel reports.

The president has visited a camp of the National Guard’s Anti-Terror Center where he decorated the troopers. Svyatogorsk is located 15 kilometers to the north of Sloviansk where the army punitive operation is still under way.

Kiev is conducting what it calls an “antiterrorism operation” in Ukraine’s Southeast against federalization supporters whom it calls “terrorists”.