“The chance for peace in Ukraine has appeared. It was difficult, but nonetheless a ceasefire has been reached,” Lavrov said.
On December 9, the so-called silence regime ceasefire in the eastern Ukrainian self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People's republics (DPR, LPR respectively) came into effect.
The previous ceasefire between eastern Ukrainian independence supporters and government-controlled security forces was agreed on September 5 in Minsk, through the mediation of a Contact Group that included representatives from Russia and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). Since then, both sides have accused each other of repeatedly breaking the truce.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko on Friday described the agreement as a “real ceasefire”, adding no deaths had been reported overnight among Ukrainian troops involved in the so-called anti-terrorist operation in the country’s East, in what he said was a rare occurrence.
This was confirmed by government representatives in the self-proclaimed republics, who said their forces had suffered no casualties and there had been no fights throughout the night.
