Ukraine’s new Western-backed President on Friday released a sweeping peace plan for curbing a pro-Russian uprising in the separatist east that is threatening the ex-Soviet country’s survival.
The publication of the 14-point initiative followed two phone conversations in 72 hours between President Petro Poroshenko and Russia’s Vladimir Putin, which highlighted the Kremlin’s lingering influence over its smaller
western neighbour.
Poroshenko had hosted in Kiev local leaders and tycoons from the eastern rustbelt to help win their agreement for his ideas of how to end the fighting that has killed at least 365 civilians and fighters on both sides.
A Ukranian military spokesman said the latest eastern clashes claimed the lives of seven soldiers and left 30 wounded.
Kiev media published copies of the document Poroshenko was due to formally unveil later in the day that demands the rebels’ immediate disarmament and promises to decentralise power through constitutional reform.
The plan also drops criminal charges against separatist fighters who committed no “serious crimes” and provides “a guaranteed corridor for Russian and Ukrainian mercenaries to leave” the conflict zone.