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Poroshenko says ceasefire regime helped Ukrainian army to reinforce its positions

Ukrainian President said the “regime of silence” helped to rearm and enhance troops and restore their combat readiness

KIEV, December 14. /TASS/. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said the ceasefire regime in eastern Ukraine made it possible for the Ukrainian military to reinforce their positions, the presidential press service said on Sunday.

Poroshenko said the “regime of silence” helped to rearm and enhance troops and restore their combat readiness. At the same time he called to take more energetic efforts to realease all prisoners of wars. He set a task for agencies concerned to take efforts to have “all those on the lists of prisoners of war return home by Christmas.” He said there were not more than 600 such people.

Poroshenko announced plans to introduce a moratorium on combat actions on December 4. This proposal was welcomed by the leadership of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk people’s republics. The head of the Donetsk republic, Alexander Zakharchenko, said the ceasefire had been declared as far back as September 5 at a meeting of the Contact Group for Ukraine in the Belarusian capital Minsk.

Andrei Lysenko, an official spokesman for Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, said the goal of the “day of silence” was to kick-start the fulfilling of the Minsk agreements - that is, to begin the pullback of heavy weaponry, to release prisoners, to clear minefields, and to begin demilitarization of the region.