The presidential order was issued after a Trilateral Contact Group meeting in the Belarusian capital, Minsk, where an agreement was reached for a new cessation of hostilities to come into force in Donbass beginning midnight, April 1.
"We are observing a cessation of hostilities starting from 00:00 [on Saturday]. We are adhering to the ceasefire. But prior to that, the [Kiev] forces had continued to shell a residential area of one of the settlements in the south of the republic. There are damages to a school building," the spokesperson said.
The ceasefire must hold for the duration of Easter holidays, according to Russian envoy to the Contact Group on Ukraine Boris Gryzlov.
Kiev launched a special military operation in Ukraine’s southeast in April 2014, after local residents refused to recognize the new Ukrainian authorities, which came to power as a result of a coup.
In February 2015, a peace agreement was signed between Ukraine’s conflicting sides in Minsk after talks brokered by the leaders of Russia, France, Germany and Ukraine — the so-called Normandy Format. Despite the ceasefire deal, sporadic fighting has continued in Donbass.
The Contact Group holds regular meetings in Minsk, aimed at facilitating a diplomatic resolution of the armed conflict in Ukraine’s southeast.
