World September 08, 21:33 – ITAR
KYIV, September 08. /ITAR-TASS/. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko issued an order on Monday to maintain high-degree alert in Mariupol, in eastern Ukrainian Donetsk region, amid a truce largely holding since Friday.
“We are ready to defend our state. Our army, the Armed Forces, border guards keep their powder dry. But we will do all to solve the situation politically,” the president said on a visit to Mariupol on Monday.
He said that although many inside the country and abroad did not like the peace plan, all efforts were being made to implement it.
On September 3, Putin proposed a peace plan for settling the conflict in eastern Ukraine.
It calls for ending active offensive operations by armed forces, armed units and militia groups in southeast Ukraine in the Donetsk and Luhansk areas; withdrawing Ukrainian armed forces units to a distance that would make it impossible to fire on populated areas using artillery and all types of multiple launch rocket systems; allowing for full and objective international monitoring of compliance with the ceasefire and monitoring of the situation in the safe zone created by the ceasefire; excluding all use of military aircraft against civilians and populated areas in the conflict zone; organising the exchange of individuals detained by force on an ‘all for all’ basis without any preconditions; opening humanitarian corridors for refugees and for delivering humanitarian cargoes to towns and populated areas in Donbass – Donetsk and Luhansk regions; and making it possible for repair brigades to come to damaged settlements in the Donbass region in order to repair and rebuild social facilities and life-supporting infrastructure and help the region to prepare for the winter.
On September 5, the Contact Group on Ukraine adopted a peaceful settlement plan and a ceasefire agreement.