Top leaders of the major Western powers, the United States, France and Germany have stressed anew that Russia must stop meddling in Ukraine's situation and pressure loyalists to abstain from violence.
The joint stance against Moscow's policies in the Ukraine was demonstrated when U.S. President Barack Obama spoke separately, on Friday, with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande to consult about the crisis in the troubled nation which neighbors Russia, the White House said in an official statement, released late on Friday.
The three top leaders "welcomed President (Petro) Poroshenko's announcement of a unilateral ceasefire." They also "re-emphasized the need for Russia to pull back its destabilizing presence of military forces on the border of Ukraine, stop the flow of weapons and militants across the border, and exercise its influence among armed separatists to lay down their weapons and renounce violence." Poroshenko announced on Friday that a ceasefire would be in effect in hours and said separatists must disarm by June 27. Fighting in Ukraine was to officially be stopped for one week beginning later on Friday, Poroshenko was quoted by the Russian news agency, INTERFAX, as saying.
Clashes between Ukrainian security forces and pro-Moscow separatists have gripped eastern Ukraine since April. There, armed militants have claimed autonomy from Kiev, which they consider an illegitimate government, installed illegally after the ouster of former President Viktor Yanukovych.
The White House statement added that the president of the US, Germany and France "agreed that should Russia fail to take immediate, concrete steps to deescalate the situation in eastern Ukraine, the United States and the European Union would coordinate additional steps to impose costs on Russia." The statement noted that "the leaders also expressed concern about the situation in Iraq and the threat posed by ISIL," the militant Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, that has recently shown stronger muscles by occupying the northern city of Mosul, Iraq's second largest city, and threatened the central government in Baghdad.