Ukraine announces week long ceasefire in fight against separatists -...

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Ukrainian government forces on Friday announced a week-long ceasefire in their fight against pro-Russian separatists in the east of the country, the interior ministry said, quoting President Petro Poroshenko.

It quoted Poroshenko, on its web site, as saying the ceasefire would come into force on Friday and would last until June 27.

Poroshenko was quoted as saying that during that time government forces would fire only if they came under attack from separatists.

Earlier, an unofficial copy published by media said Poroshenko will call for the creation of a 10-km (6.25-mile) buffer zone on the border with Russia under a 14-point plan to bring peace to east Ukraine.

Ukraine says fighters from Russia and supplies of guns and other military equipment have been coming into the country to support pro-Russian separatists, and tightening control of the 1,900-km (1,190-mile) border is Ukraine's main security headache.

Details of the proposal to create a 10-km buffer zone, contained in a photographed copy of the 14-point plan and carried in Ukrainian media, were not spelled out.

It was not clear if the whole of the proposed demilitarised no-man's land would be on Ukraine's side of the border or part of it on the Russian side. It was also not clear what the status of people living in border areas would be.

Acting Defence Minister Mykhailo Koval told parliament on Friday that government forces were now back in control of the border and there was now no possibility of military equipment being ferried in to the rebels from Russia.

Also on Friday, the Kremlin denied a statement by NATO suggesting Russia was building up troops on the frontier with Ukraine but said Moscow had brought in more border guards because of security concerns.

NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said on Thursday that at least a few thousand more Russian troops were now at the frontier, and called it a regrettable step backwards following an earlier withdrawal from the border.

"There has been no build-up," Yuri Ushakov, President Vladimir Putin's foreign policy adviser, told reporters.

He said Russia was concerned about security at the border and added: "This means just the border guards are getting a few reinforcements, and troops have been withdrawn."

Ushakov said Putin had informed French President Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel of this by telephone, adding that the three leaders would hold another three-way call soon. He said Putin also planned another phone call with U.S. President Barack Obama but gave no details.

Fighting raged for a second successive day in the east of Ukraine on Friday, a day after clashes in which Ukrainian government forces said about 300 separatists were killed.

The casualty figures for the pro-Russian separatists could not be independently confirmed though a rebel commander said on Thursday the rebels had sustained "heavy losses" when they were outgunned by government forces backed by heavy armour.

The government forces said seven of their own number had been killed in Thursday's fighting. The new fighting on Friday was about 100 km (60 miles) from the border with Russia.

US sanctions:

The United States has information that Russia has prepared more tanks to be sent to Ukraine and has intensified talks with the European Union on possible "scalpel" sanctions against Russia's defense and high-tech industries, a senior U.S. official said.

"We have information that additional tanks departed from a deployment site in southwest Russia yesterday," the official, who spoke on condition anonymity, told reporters.

Speaking of the sanctions talks with the EU, the official added: "The idea here is to deny Russia the kinds of investment and next-generation technology that it needs to continue to grow ... It (the talks with the EU) has intensified over the last week."

This comes as the United States added seven Ukrainians and Russians to its list of people subject to sanctions over the rebellion in eastern Ukraine, the U.S. Treasury Department said on Friday.

The Treasury Department identified the individuals as Valery Bolotov, Igor Vsevolodovich Girkin, Valery Vladimirovich Kaurov, Sergei Ivanovich Menyailo, Vyacheslav Ponomaryov, Andrey Yevgenyevich Purgin and Denis Pushilin.

The United States announced a series of sanctions in the spring aimed at business leaders and companies close to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

REUTERS