Putin and Ukraine leader to agree on a ceasefire and prisoner exchange

Putin and president of Ukraine will introduce a ceasefire in eastern Ukraine before 2020, says after the meeting. Russia's president, Vladimir Putin, and his

Putin and Ukraine leader to agree on a ceasefire and prisoner exchange

Putin and president of Ukraine will introduce a ceasefire in eastern Ukraine before 2020, says after the meeting.

Russia's president, Vladimir Putin, and his Ukrainian colleague Volodymyr Zelenskij, agree to commit to a comprehensive ceasefire in eastern Ukraine before the end of the year.

It informs the two in a joint announcement after a summit in Paris on Monday for peace in the Ukraine.

Putin met in Paris for the first time Ukraine's relatively new president, Volodymyr Zelenskij, in a new attempt to resolve the conflict in eastern Ukraine.

the Parties were at Monday's meeting also agreed on a "all for all"prisoner exchange before the end of the year.

- the Parties commit themselves to a full and comprehensive implementation of a ceasefire by the end of 2019, it says in the message, according to the news agency Reuters.

the Agreement also includes a withdrawal of forces from the Ukrainian conflict in march 2020.

At the summit on Monday had both mr Putin and Zelenskij first separate bilateral meetings with the president of France, Emmanuel Macron, and Germany's chancellor, Angela Merkel.

Prior to the meeting, there was not expected any comprehensive agreement about peace. But diplomats hoped that there would be steps taken towards more trust and a basis for a continued peace process, writes the news agency AFP.

Russia had previously sent signals that the country was ready to negotiate with Zelenskij, as the russians have called "sympathetic" and "serious".

the Negotiations are based on a peace plan at a meeting in Minsk in 2015.

Since Russia in the 2014 annexation of the Crimean peninsula, has the relationship between Russia and Ukraine has been very tense.

But the Ukrainian president, who is a former comedian, said at his inauguration after being elected in may, he will focus on the controversy in the east, where around 13,000 people have lost their lives.

/ritzau/

Date Of Update: 10 December 2019, 01:00
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