News.Kyiv.Me.

MOSCOW — Ukraine and one of two Russian-backed rebel groups fighting in eastern Ukraine have
pledged to recommit to a cease-fire along one portion of the front, European monitors said today,
in the first new step toward a diplomatic settlement of the conflict in months.

Under the agreement announced by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, or
OSCE, the Ukrainian military and Luhansk People’s Republic agreed to order a cease-fire along the
front starting on Friday, and then to pull heavy weaponry from a buffer zone starting on
Saturday.

Both Ukraine and the Russian-backed rebel groups had committed to the same terms under a deal
also signed by Russia on Sept. 5. But cease-fire violations have run into the dozens every day
since, so that about a quarter of the estimated 4,300 civilians and soldiers killed in eastern
Ukraine during the war died after the agreement.

The OSCE announced the new cease-fire in the Luhansk region late Monday. Some points remained to
be ironed out, it said.

But a critical issue was resolved when Luhansk rebel leaders agreed to control splinter groups;
violence by organizations ostensibly beyond the separatist leadership’s control became a frequent
explanation for past cease-fire violations. Semi-independent militias also fight on the Ukrainian
side.

They “insisted that they were in control of all Cossack units, and that these units, too, would
adhere to this proposal,” according to the group’s statement, referring to the Luhansk People’s
Republic.

The Ukrainian government has said parallel talks with the other main rebel group, the Donetsk
People’s Republic, halted artillery fire in a battle for the Donetsk airport overnight Monday to
today. Shooting resumed during the day near the airport, however.