From ITAR-TASS:
Russian and Ukrainian Presidents Vladimir Putin and Petr Poroshenko are satisfied that a cease-fire is holding in eastern Ukraine, an aide to the Russian leader said on Wednesday.
Yuri Ushakov said that Putin and Poroshenko had discussed the issue on the phone on Tuesday.
"However, both sides understand that the process is complicated and is not absolutely smooth," Ushakov said.
He added that the phone conversation of the two leaders was "interesting and substantial" and focused on the developments in eastern Ukraine.
Here's an update from our news desk:
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko says he will submit a bill next week to grant "special status" to areas in eastern Ukraine but that the country will remain united.
Poroshenko told a televised government meeting today that a peace accord signed with pro-Russian separatists last week preserves the concept of Ukraine as a sovereign, united country within its current borders.
He said a cease-fire between government forces and pro-Russian separatists who hold parts of the eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions has been difficult to maintain, saying "the terrorists are trying all the time to provoke" their opponents.
Poroshenko said government forces were "regrouping" in eastern Ukraine to reinforce defense, not for a new offensive.
He said he did not rule out introducing a "special regime" in areas adjacent to the military operations zone.
(Reuters, Interfax)
"We are not considering remaining part of Ukraine," Andrei Purgin, the deputy prime minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, told AFP.
ITAR-TASS quotes Russian State Duma speaker Sergei Naryshkin as saying Russia will certainly retaliate over any new EU sanctions.
More from AFP:
"There is and can be no talk of federalization or some estrangement (by the rebel-held regions)," [Poroshenko] told a cabinet meeting. "The law on temporary self-rule in individual districts of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions provides for a status that keeps these regions in Ukraine."
Pro-Russian rebels insist on independence from Ukraine. -- AFP
Malaysian defense chief, Hishammuddin Tun Hussein, is in Moscow to discuss the investigation into the MH17 crash, AP and Interfax report. He will reportedly meet with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin.
Malaysia's prime minister said yesterday that those findings suggest the Malaysian airliner was shot down by a ground-to-air missile.
Agencies quote Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko as saying he will submit a bill to parliament granting parts of eastern Ukraine special status but that the accord signed with pro-Russian separatists last week preserves the concept of a united Ukraine.