More from our News Desk on the cease-fire agreement that Kyiv says has been reached in eastern Ukraine:
In a statement on Poroshenko's website, his press service said the agreement was reached during a telephone conversation with Putin.
"The result of the conversation was an agreement on a permanent cease-fire in the Donbas," it said, using a term referring to the area where the rebels hold two provincial capitals and other territory.
"Mutual understanding was reached regarding steps that will foster the establishment of peace," the statement said.
The statement was released shortly after Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, told Russian news agencies that Putin and Poroshenko had discussed the Ukraine crisis by telephone and that their views on ways out "coincided to a substantial degree."
There was no mention of agreement on a cease-fire in those reports.
This just in from our News Desk:
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko's office says Poroshenko and Russian President Vladimir Putin have agreed on a cease-fire in eastern Ukraine.
This from Reuters:
The forces responsible for Russia's strategic nuclear arsenal will conduct major exercises this month involving more than 4,000 soldiers, the Defence Ministry said on Wednesday, in the latest sign of rising tension with NATO over the Ukraine crisis.
In an announcement a day before the start of a NATO summit in Wales, RIA news agency quoted the ministry as saying the exercises would take place in Altai in south-central Russia and would also include around 400 technical units and extensive use of air power.