Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko both confirmed today that a ceasefire deal has been reached, though both sides differed about whose idea it actually war.
Putin publicly laid out the terms of a “seven-point” peace plan for eastern Ukraine, with the first step being both sides ending their “active offensive operations” against one another. The goal is to finalize the deal on Friday.
Poroshenko’s own description of the plan claimed Putin had agreed to a deal with Ukraine, though the Kremlin issued a correction pointing out Ukraine and Russia aren’t actually at war, and that the deal is to end the eastern Ukrainian conflict.
Russia has been trying to negotiate an end to the war for months, and has been pushing deals on federalism and increased regional autonomy as the key to ending the internal war.
Analysts didn’t see much chance of the deal actually ending the war, saying it would be difficult to sell peace inside Ukraine ahead of October’s parliamentary elections. Ukraine’s ultranationalists, who are increasingly politically important, have been pushing precipitous acceleration of the war.
Ukraine’s government had been spurning peace deals when the war was going well on their side, but seems to be changing their mind with a recent rebel counter-offensive reversing their gains.
