DONETSK, Ukraine (AP) – Pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine’s embattled east have dismissed a unilateral cease-fire ordered by President Petro Poroshenko as fake, while nine Ukrainian service members were wounded in clashes overnight.
Otherwise, no large-scale fighting had been reported Saturday, the opening day of what is to be a six-and-a-half-day stand-down by the Ukrainian military.
Poroshenko ordered the cease-fire starting at 10 p.m. Friday as a first step in a peace plan he hopes will end a conflict that has left hundreds of people dead and weighed heavily on the country’s economy.
The plan includes an amnesty for fighters who lay down their arms, and a chance for them to leave the country. That is to be followed by local and parliamentary elections and a jobs program.
Separatist leaders have rejected the cease-fire and said they will not disarm. In Donetsk, a group of armed men gathered in the central square to take a military oath to the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic.