News.Kyiv.Me.

DNIPROPETROVSK, Ukraine — A plan by Ukraine’s new president to end a two-month-old conflict with separatists in the eastern part of the country includes a proposal to create a six-mile buffer zone on Ukraine’s border with Russia, according to details that started to emerge Friday.

President Petro Poroshenko, who discussed his plan late Thursday night in a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, is preparing to unveil the full details any day, though he already has spoken publicly about several elements. The plan would include a cease-fire, amnesty, safe passage for foreign “mercenaries” and the decentralization of power from Kyiv to regional governments. A few more details, including the buffer zone, were published Friday in the Ukrainian press.

Implementing Poroshenko’s plan may prove difficult, however, as heavy fighting between government troops and pro-Russia separatists continued in eastern Ukraine for a second straight day Friday.

From Ukraine’s perspective, the first order of business is to seal off the border with Russia to sever the rebels’ supply lines of fighters and equipment.

Oleksandr Turchynov, the speaker of parliament, said Friday morning that government troops have regained full control of the border. But Vladimir Chepovoy, a spokesman for Ukraine’s National Security Council, said, “There is no such thing yet.”

Adding to the sense of urgency, both Ukrainian and NATO officials have said that Russia has deployed more troops and military equipment close to the border in recent days. Russia denies any buildup, however, and characterized any troop movement near the border as an attempt to strengthen its own defenses as a war rages just across its border.

So far, rebels have rejected every offer to stop fighting. At daybreak Friday, militants launched an attack on government troops around the Luhansk airport, where they shot down a military transport plane last weekend. The government claims it killed around 300 insurgents in fighting since Thursday morning, losing seven of its own servicemen.

Ukrainian security officials also said Ukraine has detained 13 Russian citizens among more than 90 “terrorists and saboteurs” in their custody, using a term that appeared to refer to intelligence agents as opposed to fighters.

Given the facts on the battleground, Poroshenko’s peace plan reads more like a blueprint for negotiations than a plan to quickly stop the fighting. Poroshenko has pointedly said he will not sit down to negotiate with “terrorists.” His representative in the negotiations, Irina Gerashchenko, said Friday that separatists of the self-proclaimed “people’s republics” in Luhansk and Donetsk will not be invited to any roundtable talks.

Ukrainian and NATO officials have said that Russia is deploying more troops closer to the border, though there is no indication yet that Russia intends to respond to a rebel leader’s call to invade and help them survive a punishing onslaught by the Ukrainian army. Moscow may be signaling that its interests need to be taken into account before the crisis can end.

On Thursday, fighting raged in the countryside of the Donetsk region, one of two separatist strongholds in eastern Ukraine. The Defense Ministry said the army had regained control of two villages, Yampil and Kirovsk.

Igor Strelkov, a rebel leader in Slovyansk, went on YouTube and sardonically berated Moscow over what he implied was insufficient assistance. Standing before a pile of sandbags, he said Ukrainian troops had overwhelmed separatists in the nearby villages of Yampil and Servisk. He said that the rebels would continue fighting but that the Ukrainian military would break their defenses soon.

“I am grateful to the Russian Federation, which supports us so strongly,” he said sarcastically, adding: “And I still hope Moscow has conscience enough to take action.”

In a separate YouTube video posted Thursday night, one of several he sent throughout the day, Strelkov’s tone grew more urgent as he pleaded with Moscow for help.

“The militia and the People’s Republic of Donetsk urge the Russian leadership to provide urgent assistance to New Russia to prevent further genocide of the Russian population,” he said.

Near the town of Krasny Lyman, the Ukrainian army distributed fliers asking the militants to surrender their arms. It repeated an amnesty offer made by Poroshenko to those who were not directly responsible for bloodshed and promised a fair investigation into their actions to determine whether they are eligible.

One ray of hope came from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which announced that it had been in contact with two teams of monitors who have been missing for three weeks and were last seen at checkpoints in eastern Ukraine. They are unharmed, OSCE said.

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s richest man, billionaire Rinat Akhmetov, issued a plea for peace using short, staccato sentences:

“People do not need a process. People need a result. People need peace!

“They are asking, they are demanding — please give us peace.

“I strongly believe that we must find a peaceful solution.

“And we will find it only at the negotiating table.

“Not at the wheel of armored vehicles, or by machine guns and artillery.”