Also just in from our News Desk:
The Group of Seven (G7) leading industrialized nations has welcomed the Minsk agreements establishing a cease-fire in Ukraine as an "important opportunity" to find a political solution to the conflict.
In a statement on September 25, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the United States condemned violations of the September 5 cease-fire and called on Russia to withdraw all of its forces, weapons, and equipment from eastern Ukraine.
The G7 also commended Ukraine for passing legislation on amnesty and a "special status" for parts of the country's east and welcomed the ratification of a free-trade agreement with the European Union, some provisions of which are being delayed until the end of 2015.
The countries said they would roll back sanctions against Russia when it meets its commitments according to the Minsk agreement and cease-fire.
From RFE/RL's News Desk:
Addressing the UN General Assembly, EU Council President Herman Van Rompuy said the violation of Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity by Russia has triggered "the gravest treat to the European security order in decades."
He also stressed the need for Kyiv to "move firmly" forward on the path of economic, political, and constitutional reforms. Those reforms, he said, will determine the success of "a lasting political solution."
This just in from Reuters:
The European Union is likely to keep sanctions on Russia in place for now when ambassadors meet next week to assess progress in implementing Ukraine's peace process, diplomats said.
When the EU adopted its latest sanctions on Russia over its involvement in the Ukraine conflict earlier this month, EU ambassadors agreed they would review the implementation of the Ukraine peace plan by the end of September.
European Council President Herman Van Rompuy held out the possibility that, if the situation on the ground warranted it, EU sanctions could be amended, suspended, even fully repealed.
A cease-fire between pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainian forces in eastern Ukraine, which took effect on September 5 and has been regularly violated, "has finally begun working," Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said on Thursday.
"For me, the analysis is that the conditions are so far not ripe to reverse course," one EU diplomat said, ahead of a meeting of EU ambassadors on Tuesday to discuss the implementation of the peace plan.
More choice quotes from Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko's lengthy news conference in Kyiv today:
"Therefore, our priorities are as follows: First -- anticorruption reform, renewal of structures of government and administration; first -- judicial reform; first -- reform of law-enforcement structures; first -- decentralization and reform of public administration; first -- tax reform; first -- deregulation of business; first -- reform of security and defense systems, something that is most pressing. On top of that, I will add two other special and urgent programs: Our country's energy independence and further promotion of Ukraine in the world."
***
"I am convinced that the times when we were being divided over the issues of NATO, [European] treaties, east and west are far behind us. Ukraine is united. Our people, our nation, and our country went through perhaps the hardest trials in its history and has passed it very successfully and I congratulate you on it."
***
"There is no law about a special status of Donbas. This is a fiction coming from either [internal] opponents or from abroad. There is a law of a special regime of local governance. Ukraine is not delegating any part of its central national authority to anyone. The issues of sovereignty, territorial integrity, and independence are not and cannot be for sale. I am supposed to be the guarantor of this and I will be."
***
"Believe me, I know the history of Transdniester. After all, it is not about the status, or independence, or territorial integrity as such. The issue is that the 20 years of the existence of Transdniester have doomed hundreds of thousands of people -- who used to live in one of the most prosperous republics of the [former] Soviet Union, with some of the highest standards of living -- to slavery, to ill fate, to misery turning them into outcasts of global civilization."
***
"The very example of Transdniester, Ossetia, and Abkhazia convince me and give me grounds for optimism that we will preserve the integrity, sovereignty, and independence of our country."
***
"I believe that within three weeks we will hold a meeting [with Russian President] Vladimir [Putin] that will be of a multiparty format, although that does not exclude a possibility of bilateral consultations, and it will take place in Europe. Preliminary arrangements are already in place. It depends on the success of the implementation of the peace plan. Whether [the meeting] will take place in the Normandy format (Ukraine, Russia, France, and Germany) or the Geneva format (EU, U.S., Russia, and Ukraine) or any other format also depends on circumstances."
***
"The key position is that [local] elections must take place and must be held on December 7 as stipulated by law. Once Donetsk elects its legitimate representative who is able to represent the interests of the Donetsk people, it will be my pleasure to meet him or her. Why not earlier? Because so far there is no one for me to meet there."
***
"There will be no peacekeeping troops [in Ukraine's southeast] because the precedents of [Russian] peacekeeping troops in Transdniester and other frozen conflicts have led to countries losing the sovereignty over their territories. There will be no peacekeeping troops on the territory of Ukraine. Period."