UKRAINE-CRISIS/EU-POROSHENKO Ukraine's Poroshenko calls for immediate ceasefire on EU visit

Record ID: 142355

  • Title: UKRAINE-CRISIS/EU-POROSHENKO Ukraine's Poroshenko calls for immediate ceasefire on EU visit
  • Date: 27th August 2015
  • Summary: BRUSSELS, BELGIUM (AUGUST 27, 2015) (REUTERS) ****WARNING CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** POROSHENKO AND JUNCKER POSING FOR PHOTOGRAPH BEFORE ENTERING MEETING ROOM UKRAINIAN AND EU FLAGS / POROSHENKO AND JUNCKER ARRIVING FOR NEWS BRIEFING POROSHENKO DURING BRIEFING NEWS BRIEFING IN PROGRESS (SOUNDBITE) (English) UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT, PETRO POROSHENKO, SAYING: "I think we shouldn't wait until first of September. Me as the President of Ukraine is interested to introduce it immediately. Today, at 1320 pm (1120 GMT), because who knows how many lives we will pay until waiting for the first of September." JUNCKER / NEWS BRIEFING ENDING
  • Embargoed: 11th September 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Belgium
  • Country: Belgium
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA8JCB3GZ7RZMBOZBRZ7L4QIR4B
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko called on Thursday (August 27) for an immediate ceasefire in his country as he paid a visit to the European institutions in Brussels.
    Poroshenko met European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker at the Commission's headquarters where they discussed the situation in Ukraine.
    Ukraine and pro-Russian separatists, in a gesture to shore up a tenuous ceasefire, agreed on Wednesday (August 26) to strive for an end to all truce violations from next Tuesday (September 1), the OSCE and rebel representatives said. Poroshenko however urged for swifter action.
    "I think we shouldn't wait until first of September. Me as the President of Ukraine is interested to introduce it immediately. Today, at 1320 pm (1120 GMT), because who knows how many lives we will pay until waiting for the first of September," he told a news briefing.
    The two sides agreed in February to a ceasefire between their forces in eastern Ukraine in parallel to a political process, including plans for local elections and establishment of a special self-management status for separatist-minded regions.
    But sporadic clashes between the two forces, in which artillery and other weapons have been used and civilians, Ukrainian soldiers and separatists have been killed, have to undermined it.
    Both sides have blamed the other for the violations.
    Poroshenko also met European Council President Donald Tusk before meeting with Belgium's Prime Minister Charles Michel.
    More than 6,500 people have been killed since the conflict erupted in eastern Ukraine in April last year after Russia annexed the Crimea in response to a pro-Moscow president being toppled by street protests in Kiev.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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