Ukraine president to order unilateral ceasefire 'shortly'

KIEV: Ukraine´s new President Petro Poroshenko said on Wednesday that he would soon order a unilateral ceasefire in the separatist east as part of a broader plan to end the 10-week insurgency.

"The peace plan begins with my order for a unilateral ceasefire," the Interfax-Ukraine news agency quoted the Western-backed leader as saying.

"Immediately after that, we must receive support for the presidential peace plan from all sides involved (in the conflict). This should happen very shortly."

Poroshenko´s announcement came after a phone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday in which the two leaders discussed a long-term solution to the pro-Kremlin uprising gripping Ukraine´s eastern rustbelt since early April.

The Ukrainian leader´s office said the two presidents "discussed a series of priority measures that must be undertaken to implement a ceasefire, as well as the most efficient ways to monitor it."

The Kremlin confirmed that "the issue of a possible ceasefire in the area of the military operation in Ukraine´s southeast had been touched upon."

Poroshenko´s peace initiative calls for an end to hostilities and for Putin to formally recognise the new leadership in Ukraine that rose to power following the pro-Russian administration´s ouster in February.

The 48-year-old confectionery tycoon won Ukraine´s May 25 presidential election on a promise to quickly end the country´s worst crisis since its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.Interfax-Ukraine said Poroshenko told reporters in Kiev that the ceasefire was meant to be a temporary measures designed to give the pro-Russian militants a chance to disarm.