Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko has reached agreement with Russia’s Vladimir Putin on Wednesday on a “permanent ceasefire” in eastern Ukraine’s Donbass region, Poroshenko’s press office said in a statement.

“Mutual understanding was achieved concerning the steps which will enable the establishment of peace,” the statement also said after Poroshenko and President Putin spoke by telephone.

Pro-Russian separatists are battling Kiev’s forces in the mainly Russian-speaking Donbass region, which is home to most of Ukraine’s heavy industry and accounts for about 18 percent of the country’s economic output.

(Reuters)