Pro-Moscow rebels in east of Ukraine agree to ceasefire

Ukraine's militants have agreed to suspend fighting, after the White House and European Union foreign ministers told Russia to stop aiding Ukraine's rebels or face more sanctions.

Ukraine's pro-EU president Petro Poroshenko ordered a week-long ceasefire in restive east last Friday, as a first stage in a peace plan aimed at ending conflict, restoring Kiev's control over the entire country and decentralising power.

In rebel-held Donetsk last night, separatist leaders said their fighters would respect the ceasefire. The apparent breakthrough came after they held talks with pro-Russian Ukrainian politicians, representatives of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe and ex-Ukrainian president Leonid Kuchma. Mr Poroshenko asked Mr Kuchma – an influential figure – to attend. Earlier, Kiev's western allies repeated accusations that Russia was failing to prevent mercenaries and weapons crossing into Ukraine.

Call to Russia

“The EU calls on the

Russian Federation

to support the peace plan and to adopt effective measures to stop the continued flow of illegal fighters, arms and equipment,” EU foreign ministers said after meeting in

Luxembourg

.

They called on Moscow "to use its influence on the separatists to stop the violence and lay down their arms, to continue withdrawing and refrain from gathering troops again near the Ukrainian border."

The US and Nato accuse Russia of allowing unmarked T64 tanks to cross into Ukraine and reinforce the rebels, and of massing government troops near the frontier to intimidate the Kiev government.

“I don’t know if Russian citizens are normally equipped with T64s, but citizens with T64s are coming across the border,” Swedish foreign minister Carl Bildt said. “If the Russians say they don’t know how to close borders, I don’t think that’s a particularly credible statement.”

Sanctions threat

The EU and US have imposed asset-freezes and travel-bans on some officials close to the Kremlin and involved in Moscow’s annexation of Crimea, and have threatened to sanction sectors of Russia’s economy.

US president Barack Obama told Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin by telephone last night tougher measures would be imposed on Moscow in the absence of “concrete actions” to de-escalate Ukraine’s crisis. Mr Putin called for direct talks between representatives of Kiev and the rebels.

Leaders of EU states will meet on Thursday and Friday, for a summit at which Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova will sign major trade association deals with Brussels – in defiance of Moscow, their Soviet-era master.