Ukraine has reached a conditional cease-fire agreement with pro-Russian rebels on Friday, just hours after NATO approved plans to counter future aggression from Russia.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko announced the agreement in a statement on his official website Friday, saying he had ordered Ukraine's military forces to cease activity at 6:00 p.m. Friday.
"The highest value is human life," Poroshenko said in the statement. "We must do everything possible and impossible to terminate bloodshed and put an end to people's suffering."
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Poroshenko told reporters in Belarus that the cease-fire was contingent upon the signing of a new peace plan to end the five-month war in eastern Ukraine. Alexander Zakharchenko, head of the Donetsk People's Republic, the main rebel group, issued a statement that his people would agree to a cease-fire if a peace deal were signed.
The Interfax-Ukraine news agency reports that the 14-clause peace protocol will include "all the aspects of monitoring, the exchange of prisoners, and other issues." Poroshenko told reporters that both sides have signed a preliminary protocol for a conditional cease-fire.
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