UNITED NATIONS, September 3 - UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday welcomed “the news of today's contact between President Poroshenko and President Putin regarding a step by step plan toward peaceful resolution of the conflict,” his spokesman said.
“The Secretary General stresses that such a plan can only succeed if all sides display good will and take concrete steps toward implementation, including in the upcoming consultations between the Trilateral Group and armed groups which we understand will take place in Minsk on September 5,” Ban Ki-moon's spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.
Ban Ki-moon acknowledged that “the full details of the plan are not yet known.”
On Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart Petro Poroshenko had a phone conversation and discussed the situation in eastern Ukraine.
The presidents reached “mutual understanding on the steps that will facilitate the establishment of peace,” according to a statement published on the Ukrainian leader’s official website.
The Russian president confirmed the conversation and stated that his and Poroshenko’s views on settling the conflict in Ukraine were “very similar.”
Ukraine's southeast has been under fire since mid-April, when Kiev launched a special military operation, aimed at suppressing independence supporters, who refused to recognize the legitimacy of the new Kiev’s government after the February coup.
Thousands of people have been affected by continuous shelling by the Ukrainian armed forces; southeastern regions are currently in a state of humanitarian catastrophe, with citizens struggling without water and electricity.
