Ukraine, rebels reach conditional cease-fire

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."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

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.