NBC News reports on developments regarding efforts to broker a ceasefire in Ukraine:
The leaders of France, Germany, Ukraine and Russia have gathered in Minsk to formulate an agreement for an end to fighting in eastern Ukraine.
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World leaders announced on Thursday a cease-fire to the violence in eastern Ukraine that has claimed more than 5,000 lives and forced hundreds of thousands more to flee their homes.
The truce, set to kick in midnight on Saturday, came after marathon talks between the leaders of Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany in the Belarusian capital Minsk.
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The deal, details of which were posted on the Kremlin website, included a full pardon for rebel fighters, an all-for-all prisoner swap, and the removal of “all foreign forces…and mercenaries from Ukraine.”
Local elections would be held in rebel-held areas and these regions would be given more autonomous control from the capital Kiev. The eastern areas would have no say in Ukrainian foreign policy, the document said, and Ukrainian forces would be in control of the now-porous Russian border.
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