KIEV, June 20 (AFP): Ukraine's new Western-backed president 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 14-point initiative's publication followed two calls made by President Petro Poroshenko to Vladimir Putin within 72 hours in the belief that no truce could work without the suport of the Russian strongman.
Poroshenko on Thursday also hosted more than a dozen mayors and tycoons from the eastern rustbelt to help win their backing for his plan to try to end 10 weeks of fighting that has killed at least 365 civilians and fighters on both sides.
A Ukranian military spokesman said on Friday the latest clashes in the east had claimed the lives of seven soldiers and left 30 wounded.
Kiev media published photographs of the document Poroshenko planned to unveil later Friday that demands that the rebels disarm and promises to decentralise power through constitutional reform.
The plan drops criminal charges against fighters who committed no "serious crimes" and provides "a guaranteed corridor for Russian and Ukrainian mercenaries to leave" the conflict zone.
And it establishes a 10-kilometre (six mile) border buffer zone to stem the flow of gunmen and military equipment that both Kiev and Washington claim have been flooding in from Russia in recent weeks.
But it also calls on "local government bodies to resume their operations"-a demand rejected by separatist leaders who have proclaimed their independence from Kiev and occupied administration buildings in about a dozen cities and towns in the east.
Ukraine president unveils peace plan to curb insurgency
FE Team | Published: June 21, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00
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