• Military

• WMD Menu                           

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

Ukraine's Poroshenko to declare ceasefire in east

Iran Press TV

Wed Jun 18, 2014 1:9PM GMT

Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko says he will soon order a unilateral ceasefire in the country's troubled east as part of a broader plan to end the bloodshed in the region.

Poroshenko's announcement on Wednesday came a day after he held a telephone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The Ukrainian president's office said the two leaders 'discussed a series of priority measures that must be undertaken to implement a ceasefire, as well as the most efficient ways to monitor it.'

The Kremlin also confirmed the bilateral conversation, saying 'the issue of a possible ceasefire in the area of the military operation in Ukraine's southeast had been touched upon.'

In another development, Russia says it has opened a criminal investigation against Ukraine's Interior Minister Arsen Avakov and Igor Kolomoisky, the governor of the Dnipropetrovsk region.

Moscow accuses the Ukrainian minister and governor of being behind the killings of peaceful civilians and journalists in Ukraine's east.

The latest incident took place on Tuesday, when two Russian state television reporters were killed in Kiev's army shelling near Lugansk.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said the deaths of the two journalists demonstrated "the criminal nature" of Ukraine's military operations in the eastern parts of the country.

The two mainly Russian-speaking regions of Donetsk and Lugansk have been the scene of deadly clashes between pro-Russia protesters and the Ukrainian army since Kiev's military operation started in mid-April.

The violence intensified after the two regions declared independence from Ukraine on May 12 following local referendums, in which the provinces' residents voted overwhelmingly in favor of independence from Kiev.

The government in Kiev says it is targeting armed protesters, but reports say many civilians have been caught in the shelling that has been going on for days.

CAH/AB/SS