KIEV, October 19 (RIA Novosti) - Ukraine is preparing to open border crossings on the eastern border with Russia in the coming days, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said late on Saturday.
"We have agreed in Milan, among other decisions, that Ukrainian border guards will soon resume their service in full," he said during an interview with several TV channels on the heels of the Asia-Europe summit in Milan, Italy.
Poroshenko added that one of the clauses of the previous Minsk agreement between Kiev and east Ukrainian militias stipulated that self-defense forces in Donetsk and Luhansk relinquish control of the border.
According to the president, a group of border guards and customs officers had been sent to the Izvarino checkpoint in the conflict zone, pending the withdrawal of militias from border checkpoints. Ukrainian and Russian border guard services are expected to discuss the restart of the border crossing early next week.
Kiev and Moscow continued their dialogue on the peace settlement in eastern Ukraine during a two-day summit in north Italian city of Milan this week. A series of multilateral meetings on Ukraine in September outlined an agreement that ceased fire in eastern Ukraine and established a 30-kilometer (approximately 18-mile) buffer zone on the current line of contact between Kiev forces and independence supporters.
