Ukraine's
Poroshenko hails first full overnight truce in rebel east
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[December 16, 2014]
KIEV (Reuters) - Ukraine's
separatist east passed the night into Tuesday without any shooting,
President Petro Poroshenko said, hailing the first such stretch of calm
as a positive sign for the next steps in a peace plan.
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Ukraine is under pressure from Western backers to defuse the
conflict, which has left many people struggling to survive the
frigid winter, while the cost of the fighting has pushed former
Soviet republic toward the brink of bankruptcy.
A 12-point ceasefire protocol was worked out in September to end the
conflict between government forces and Russian-backed separatists in
which over 4,700 people have been killed.
But the truce was repeatedly flouted and Kiev made clear it would
not carry out ensuing steps under the deal, including the removal of
heavy artillery, until the guns fell silent.
"Today was the first night when we didn't have a single shelling,
not one violation of the ceasefire regime," Poroshenko said at a
part-televised meeting with security aides. "Today we face the
extremely crucial task of implementing the peace plan."
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2014/Dec/16/images/ads/current/humanesociety_sda022411.png) Rebels disagreed with Poroshenko's assessment, accusing Kiev of
further artillery bursts overnight. But his comments sounded a note
of optimism ahead of a two-day visit to Kiev by the new European
Union foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini.
At a daily briefing by the Ukrainian military, spokesman Andriy
Lysenko confirmed there had been no rebel attacks overnight, but
said Ukrainian positions had been shelled a few times during the day
on Monday.
Last week, prospects for a fresh round of peace talks between a
"contact group" comprising Ukraine, Russia and the Organization for
Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) watchdog were dashed by
renewed clashes in the east.
On Monday, senior Ukrainian presidential official Valeriy Chaliy
said the contact group should meet "as soon as possible," but no
date had been agreed.
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Russia denies Ukrainian accusations of intervening militarily on the
side of the eastern rebels. It has called for a new round of peace
talks on the conflict, and on Monday urged constitutional reform by
Kiev to allow more autonomy to Russian-speaking eastern areas of
Ukraine.
Contradicting Poroshenko's reports of a fully-observed truce
overnight, the separatist self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic
(DNR) accused government troops of violations.
"On the night of Dec. 15, Ukrainian punitive forces carried out
artillery strikes on the territory of Donetsk airport despite the
'regime of silence'," the DNR said in an online statement.
(Reporting by Pavel Polityuk and Alessandra Prentice; Editing by
Mark Heinrich)
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