The leaders of France and Germany are set to talk to the president of Ukraine by phone and press him to agree to a new truce.

President Petro Porosenko, on a visit to Slovyansk outlined his demands for an agreement with the rebels.

“There will be no street fighting in Donetsk. Residents of both Slovyansk and Donetsk are fed up with these terrorists, so there will only be one offer: peace, a laying down of arms, and amnesty and the political plan of the President of Ukraine to decentralise power,” he said.

There may be calm in Solvyansk – but the bitter accusations have not gone away. The Ukraine Foreign Ministry has called on Russia to release a woman army officer, who it says, was abducted and spirited illegally across the border. There has been no immediate comment by Russian officials.

Fears remain in Luhansk that the rebels could return. It’s widely reported they have regrouped in the city of Donetsk from where one separatist official vowed to keep fighting and ruled out any truce.