KIEV, Ukraine
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said he would order a cease-fire Friday to end the five-month war in eastern Ukraine between the army and pro-Russian separatists.
Poroshenko said on the sidelines of a NATO summit in Wales on Thursday that he would call on the army to set up a bilateral cease-fire Friday at 14:00 local time (1100GMT).
The declaration of cease-fire will be made during a trilateral contact group meeting in the Belarusian capital of Minsk between Ukraine, Russia and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
Poroshenko and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin had agreed on a permanent cease-fire in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions during a telephone conversation Wednesday.
Kiev launched military operations in the eastern provinces of Donetsk and Luhansk in mid-April to restore government control after pro-Russian separatists declared independence in the region.
The operations had been relatively successful in pushing the separatists back. However, amid recent accounts of the presence of Russian troops on Ukrainian soil, government forces have begun to lose ground.
www.aa.com.tr/en
