Kiev says
the leaders of Ukraine and Russia are to meet next week in Italy and will
discuss eastern Ukraine's fragile ceasefire and gas supplies for winter. In
eastern Ukraine a no-shooting period had been agreed.
Deutsche Welle, 11 Oct 2014
Ukraine's
President Petro Poroshenko on Saturday said he would meet with Russia's
Vladimir Putin in Italy next Friday.
Their talks
on the six-month conflict in eastern Ukraine between pro-Russian separatists
and Kyiv forces will coincide with the Asia-Europe Meeting in Milan that is
also due to be attended by the prime ministers of Italy and Britain and German
Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Poroshenko,
while visiting the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv on Saturday, said he would
discuss the peace plan and "the issue of controlling the fulfilment of the
agreement."
Putin and
Poroshenko last met one-on-one in late August in the Belarussian capital Minsk.
The resulting truce proved largely ineffective
No-shooting
period agreed
Pro-Russian,
Donetsk rebels and newly-appointed Donetsk governor Oleksandr Kykhtenko both
announced on Saturday that an agreement had been reached to stop firing as of
9.00 a.m. (0600 UTC).
Kykhtenko's
predecessor, Sergiy Taruta, was sacked by Poroshenko on Friday. The no-shooting
period was expected to last for five days.
Ukraine
military spokesman Andriy Lysenko said: "We are ready to abide by the
agreement on pulling back heavy equipment ... as soon as the terrorists stop
firing at our positions and residential areas."
Hundreds
killed in recent weeks
Four
civilians have been killed since Friday, according to authorities in the
Donetsk and Lugansk regions. A border guard died after a Ukrainian convoy was
attacked by rebels about 20 kilometres south of Donetsk, according to the
military.
The United Nations said 300 people have died as rebels and government forces exchanged
rocket fire in recent weeks. Both sides have blamed the other for violating the
September agreements which committed them to a ceasefire, pulling back heavy
artillery to create a 30-kilometre (18-mile) wide demilitarised zone.
Italian
talks
The
government in Kiev has accused Moscow of supporting the insurgency in Ukraine's
Donetsk and Lugansk regions by sending regular contingents across the border which the government no longer controls.
The talks
next week in Italy are also to cover the dispute over gas supplies to Ukraine
from Russia. Ukraine has been without Russian gas since June because of a
dispute over payments.
The
European Union, Ukraine and Russia are trying to broker a deal that would see
Russian giant Gazprom resume gas shipments to Ukraine this winter. Natural gas
accounts for about 40 percent of Ukraine's total energy consumption.
"We
are very close to regulating the issue of the gas dispute with Russia right
now," Poroshenko said. "I hope that there will be considerable
progress."
'Main
question is peace'
Donetsk
governor Kykhtenko also said the meeting would address the threat of the
population in eastern Ukraine being cut off from Kiev's support ahead of a cold
winter: "The president of our country will be meeting the head of Russia
and will address these issues," Kykhtenko said at a press-conference on
Saturday.
"The
key and main question is peace. Russia's role in the issue of providing peace,
as you understand, is difficult to overestimate," Poroshenko said.
"And today we raise the issue of moving from declarations to concrete
steps."
Separately,
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and US Secretary of State John Kerry are
expected to discuss the situation in Ukraine at a meeting in Paris next
Tuesday.
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