Ceasefire extended in eastern Ukraine

Chancellor Angela Merkel and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko on Friday welcomed a decision by pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainian forces to recommit to a ceasefire agreement signed in 2015.

The pair said it should lead to a longer-term improvement of the security situation.

Despite the ceasefire, casualties in eastern Ukraine have been reported on a regular basis.

Poroshenko told the chancellor that he would work for an exchange of prisoners held by both sides in the conflict, a spokesman for Merkel said on Friday. They both regarded it as "an important step toward implementation of the Minsk agreements," Merkel's deputy spokesman Georg Streiter said.

"President Poroshenko stressed that he would push to ensure that this exchange happened as soon as possible," Streiter added.

Implementing the Minsk protocol

In September 2014, representatives of Ukraine, the Russian Federation and rebel groups in Donetsk and Luhansk signed a protocol in Minsk agreeing to halt the war in the Donbass region. Despite this, and a further agreement in 2015, thousands of people have died in an ongoing conflict.

In a telephone conversation on Thursday, Merkel and Putin agreed to try to create the conditions for Russian ceasefire observers to be able to return to eastern Ukraine. German government spokesman Steffen Seibert said in a statement that Merkel had told Putin that Moscow should help to resolve the situation there.

On Monday, Russian military observers had pulled out of the Joint Centre for Control and Coordination (JCCC) in Ukraine, accusing the Ukrainian side of obstructing their work and limiting access to the front line. The JCCC plays an important role in supporting the observer mission of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

Merkel and Poroshenko agreed that the Russians should return to the JCCC quickly. They also raised the possibility that German and French experts could become involved in a mediating role in the coming days.

US weapons planned for Ukraine

Despite the move towards a ceasefire, there were reports on Friday that the US administration had approved a plan to provide Javelin anti-tank missiles and other lethal weapons to Ukraine.

State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said on Friday the US had decided to provide "enhanced defensive capabilities" to help Ukraine build its military in the long term, defend its sovereignty and "deter further aggression."

US Lawmakers have been calling for lethal weapons to be supplied to Ukraine for some time.  Under law, the State Department must tell Congress of planned foreign military sales.

The decision is likely to increase tensions between the US and Russia, which denies supporting, arming or training the rebels in eastern Ukraine.

jm/rc (AP, dpa)