Ukraine: Truce With Pro-Russian Rebels Reached-- (PICTURE)

By Annie Gowen, Michael Birnbaum and William Branigin, The Washington Post

05 September 14

he Ukrainian government and pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine agreed Friday to a temporary cease-fire, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said, raising the prospect of at least a brief respite in an increasingly bloody conflict.

At a NATO summit in Wales, President Obama welcomed the announcement while expressing skepticism that the separatists and their Russian backers would adhere to the truce and other commitments. He attributed the cease-fire to pressure brought to bear on Russia by U.S. and Western sanctions and the threat of further penalties.

After several hours of talks aimed at ending the fighting, a team of negotiators in Minsk, Belarus, agreed that both sides would stop firing at 6:00 p.m. local time, or 11:00 a.m. in Washington. Poroshenko said he would work with international monitors to ensure that the terms of the cease-fire were observed.

Details of other terms in the agreement were not immediately clear, and envoys from Ukraine, Russia, the rebels and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) returned to a closed-door conference room after briefly emerging to announce the cease-fire. An OSCE representative said the agreement contains 12 points, of which the cease-fire was one.

“The highest value is human life, and we must do everything possible to stop the bloodshed and put an end to suffering,” Poroshenko said in a statement posted on his Web site.

He first announced the cease-fire on Twitter, using language that suggested a tenuous deal.

“In Minsk a preliminary protocol was signed for an agreement on a cease-fire,” Poroshenko wrote. “This protocol is to take effect on Friday.” He referred to talks that began Friday in the capital of Belarus on ending the nearly five-month-old conflict, which has destabilized Ukraine and raised tensions between Russia and the West to Cold War-era highs.

“I have given orders to the chief of my military to declare a cease-fire,” Poroshenko said later at a news conference.

The announcement came as heavy shelling rocked the outskirts of a key Ukrainian port city Friday.

Witnesses reported shelling north and east of Mariupol, a strategic city of about half a million people that lies on the Sea of Azov between Russia to the east and the Russian-annexed Crimean Peninsula to the west.

Residents said insurgents were firing toward the west from the village of Bezimenne. Seven civilians have died in the shelling so far, including two children, Konstantin Batozsky, deputy governor of the Donetsk region, said on his Facebook page.  MORE