Ukraine peace deal agreed upon with Putin – rebels to withdraw heavy artillery

#ukraine #minsk #putin #ceasefire It was a marathon session with people who mattered and who had met to resolve the crisis in Ukraine that appeared to be gradually going out of control. Present were President Vladimir Putin, President Petro Poroshenko, Chancellor Angela Markel and President Francois Hollande - and, at the end of the day, it was possible to secure a ceasefire in Ukraine's war with pro-Russian separatists.
The negotiations in Minsk, the capital of Belarus, to halt the spiraling bloodshed went on through the night and finally President Vladimir Putin emerged from the summit with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and the French and German leaders to announce that an agreement had been reached on the 'main' points as reported in dailymail.co.uk dated 12 February 2015.
The Russian President indicated that a ceasefire would take effect on Sunday and that heavy weapons would be withdrawn from frontlines of the conflict. Already over 5,300 people have been killed in the violence.
French President Francois Hollande and Ukraine President Petro Poroshenko stressed that separatist leaders had signed the truce and this would replace an earlier ceasefire agreement that had been reached in Minsk in September but rarely observed.
At one point of time there were signs that all was not well but, finally, better sense appears to have prevailed and, one can only hope that the ceasefire will be honored this time.