Russia's Putin says Ukraine peace deal reached, cease-fire to start Feb. 15

Leaders of Russia, Germany, France, and Ukraine at talks in Minsk — (Image credit: Dmitry Azarov/Kommersant Photo via Getty Images)

Early Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that a top-level summit in Minsk, Belarus, has produced a peace plan for war-torn Ukraine. A cease-fire between Ukraine and Russian-backed separatists will begin on Sunday, and heavy weapons will be withdrawn from the frontline. The deals, for a cease-fire and longer peace plan, were reached after more than 15 hours of talks involving Putin, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and French President Francois Hollande.

There are plenty of questions about the deal, a major one being whether the separatists will accept it. Putin, Poroshenko, and Merkel and Hollande also announced the deals separately, and "the fact that the leaders used three separate news conferences to announce the accord suggested a lack of unity," notes The New York Times.

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.