Putin's Seven-Point Plan for Ukraine Ceasefire
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko announced that a ceasefire plan aimed at halting five months of conflict in the industrial east would be signed on Friday.
His comments, on the sidelines of a NATO summit largely devoted to the crisis in Ukraine, followed talks on a peace blueprint between Poroshenko and Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday.
After initially saying that Russia was not a party to the conflict, Putin outlined a series of steps under what the Kremlin described as an "action plan" to end the bloodshed.
Poroshenko himself did not disclose details of the plan to be hammered out at talks in Minsk on Friday between representatives of Kiev, Moscow, the pro-Russian separatists and the pan-European body the OSCE.
However, the Kremlin outlined the following proposals:
-- First, end active offensive operations by armed forces, armed units and militia groups in southeast Ukraine in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions.
-- Second, withdraw Ukrainian armed forces units to a distance that would make it impossible to fire on populated areas using artillery and all types of multiple launch rocket systems.
-- Third, allow for full and objective international monitoring of compliance with the ceasefire and monitoring of the situation in the safe zone created by the ceasefire.
-- Fourth, exclude all use of military aircraft against civilians and populated areas in the conflict zone.
-- Fifth, organize the exchange of individuals detained by force on an "all for all" basis without any preconditions.
-- Sixth, open humanitarian corridors for refugees and for delivering humanitarian cargoes to towns and populated areas in Donbass (the Donetsk and Lugansk regions).
-- Seventh, make it possible for teams to come to damaged settlements in the Donbass region in order to repair and rebuild social facilities and infrastructure and help the region to prepare for the winter.
Source: Agence France Presse
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