Ukraine ceasefire plan to be signed on Friday: Poroshenko

Kiev (AFP) - Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said a ceasefire plan aimed at ending a near five-month conflict in the east of the country would be signed on Friday.

"Tomorrow in Minsk a document will be signed providing for the gradual introduction of the Ukrainian peace plan," he said on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Wales on Thursday. "It is very important that the first element provides for a ceasefire."

Representatives of Kiev, Moscow, the separatist rebels and the pan-European security group the OSCE are due to meet in the Belarussian capital on Friday.