MOSCOW — Ukraine’s increasingly bloody conflict went on hold Friday, after the government and pro-Russian rebels signed a cease-fire deal that at least temporarily solidified the insurgents’ territorial gains.
The agreement, made with the Kremlin’s endorsement, appeared to be a first step toward the type of dormant conflict that Russia has exploited to exert control over former satellites in the decades since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
President Barack Obama said he was hopeful the cease-fire would hold but skeptical that the rebels would follow through and that Russia would stop violating Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.
“It has to be tested,” Obama said at the close of a two-day NATO summit in Wales.
With rebels making swift gains across eastern Ukraine this week and preparing to seize the key industrial port city of Mariupol, it seemed that Ukrainian authorities felt they had little choice but to push for a halt to hostilities.
The rebels turned the tide of battle last week after receiving heavy backing from Russian forces, according to Kiev and its Western allies. The Kremlin denies aiding the rebels.
The terms of the deal underscored Russia’s apparent willingness to commit more resources than the West to achieve its aims in Ukraine. Kiev has asked for Western military aid, but relatively little has been forthcoming, in part because of Western caution about getting pulled into a proxy military conflict with Russia inside a non-NATO-member nation.
In Wales, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko told reporters that he welcomed the deal. He offered political concessions to the eastern regions that would increase their autonomy and would guarantee their ability to use the Russian language, key demands when the fighting started in mid-April.
“We are really doing our best to keep peace and stability in the eastern part of Ukraine,” Poroshenko said. “This is a very important challenge, not only for Ukraine, not only for the region. For the whole world.”
Poroshenko said he was satisfied that the deal respects Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. He said the terms were based on a conversation he and Russian President Vladimir Putin had this week.
Although leaders ranging from Poroshenko to Obama voiced skepticism about how long the break in hostilities could hold, fighting mostly quieted in eastern Ukraine on Friday evening as both sides for now lay down arms, witnesses said.
Envoys in Minsk said that they planned to swap all the prisoners they had taken beginning as early as Saturday, freeing more than 1,000 people on each side.
As part of the deal, heavy weaponry is supposed to be pulled back from the combat zone and humanitarian corridors will be set up to facilitate international aid deliveries.
The full text of the 12-point agreement was not released immediately. The envoys, which included representatives from Ukraine, Russia, the rebels and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, said they would continue discussions next week.
With rebel leaders saying in Minsk that they still desired full independence from the rest of Ukraine, it remained unclear how long the cease-fire could hold.
The deal “does not mean that the path for secession will change somehow,” said a rebel leader, Igor Plotnitsky, in Minsk, in remarks that were broadcast on Russian state television.
Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said Friday that any peace plan dictated by Putin was unacceptable. What Ukraine needs, he said, is for all foreign troops to leave Ukrainian soil and for strong border defenses to be erected, Interfax reported.
In a news conference at the close of the NATO summit, Obama said the 28-member alliance was “fully united in support of Ukraine’s sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity and right to defend itself.”
In an indication of how little faith the West places in the cease-fire, Obama said the U.S. and the European Union would move ahead with an escalation of sanctions against the Russian energy, defense and finance sectors.
As expected, NATO leaders formally approved the creation of a joint rapid-reaction force that could respond to military crises within two to six days — far faster than under current NATO arrangements.
