You're reading: Foreign Ministry briefing European partners about president’s decision to end ceasefire in Donbas

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin is conducting explanatory work with his European partners on the president's decision to end the ceasefire in the eastern regions of the country.

“At night I talked to half of the EU’s foreign ministers, in the morning with my Italian counterpart, and now I have just talked with Madrid,” he wrote on his Twitter page early on Tuesday, July 1.

As reported, on June 20, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko declared a temporary seven-day ceasefire, and later this regime was extended until 10 p.m. on June 30. Early on Tuesday, July 1, the head of state, following a meeting of the National Security and Defense Council, decided to end a unilateral ceasefire in the Donbas.

In his address to the Ukrainian people, which was published on the Web site of the president, Poroshenko said that “a unique chance to implement the peace plan was not realized,” and militants violated the ceasefire more than a hundred times.