Ukrainian troops to be told to stop gunfire if peace plan adopted at meeting in Minsk

World September 04, 2014, 17:12

The leader of the Donetsk People’s Republic and head of the Luhansk People’s Republic have declared that they will be prepared to order ceasefire as of 15:00 on September 5 if agreements are achieved

NEWPORT, September 04. /ITAR-TASS/. Order to stop gunfire will be issued to Ukrainian government forces in Eastern Ukraine at 11:00 GMT Friday if a peace plan is adopted at the meeting between Kiev representatives and leaders of the East-Ukrainian rebellion in Minsk, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko told reporters here Thursday.

He is attending a NATO summit conference that is focusing intensely on the situation in Ukraine.

Poroshenko also said the peace plan should be a step-by-step one.

Poroshenko's opinion is that the acton plan must contain mutual obligations regarding a bilateral ceasefire regime, its monitoring and verification on the part of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the establishment of a buffer border zone, and release of all unlawfully kept hostages, Lysenko said.

The Ukrainian President's plan, according to the spokesman for the National Security Council, also includes a demand for "a pullout of all foreign troops" that are ostensibly in the country's territory.

"The President of Ukraine hopes that the peace plan will become a basis for discussion at a meeting of the trilateral Contact Group," the National Security Council spokesman stated.

Moscow, for its part, expects that the sides at the Contact Group meeging in Minsk will avail themselves of the plan suggested by Russian Presdent Vladimir Putin, Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated on Thursday at a meeting with Thorbjoern Jagland, Secretary General of the Council of Europe

The leader of the Donetsk People’s Republic Aleksandr Zakharchenko and head of the Luhansk People’s Republic Igor Plotnitsky have declared that they will be prepared to order ceasefire as of 15:00 on September 5 if agreements are achieved and Ukrainian officials sign a plan for a political settlement of the conflict.

Zakharchenko and Plotnitsky said in a joint statement that “tomorrow (on Friday) in Minsk they will present to the contact group their proposals for the ceasefire regime containing detailed guarantees of both conflicting parties’ compliance with the regime.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said earlier on Thursday Moscow hoped the parties to the meeting of the ‘contact group’ in Minsk would make use of the peace plan that Russian President Vladimir Putin had made public the day before.

“We’re trying to contribute to the efforts to launch dialogue between (the authorities in) Kiev and (the war-torn) Southeastern Ukraine,” he said. “The proposals that Putin voiced yesterday after a telephone conversation with President Poroshenko are on the conference table (in Minsk).”

“We hope the conflicting sides in Ukraine will utilize these ideas and will try to reach agreement at the meeting of the Contact Group,” Lavrov said.

A peace plan consisting of seven points was published at the Kremlin’s official website on Wednesday. It includes provisions like the ending of active offensive operations on both sides in the Donetsk and Lugansk areas, withdrawal of Ukrainian armed units to a distance that would make the shelling of populated localities impossible, a full and objective international monitoring of the ceasefire, ruling out of the use of military aircraft against civilians and populated areas, exchanges of the individuals detained by force on an “all for all” basis, opening of corridors for refugees and for deliveries of humanitarian aid, and the setting up of conditions for repair works in the population centers affected by combat actions.

 

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