Ukraine's president announces cease-fire

(Vatican Radio) Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has announced a cease fire in eastern regions as part of a peace plan to end two months of fighting between government forces and pro-Russian separatists in eastern provinces.

Listen to Stefan Bos' report: 

The President's remarks came shortly after the interior minister said Wednesday that a bomb damaged a Ukrainian pipeline carrying natural gas from Russia to Europe.

Poroshenko told reporters government forces would cease fire to allow pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine to lay down their weapons or leave the country. 

Ukraine's Defense Minister Arsen Avakov said the cease-fire could begin within days. The announcement comes amid mounting tensions between Ukraine and Russia. 

MOSCOW'S DECISION 

Kyiv has been angered by Moscow's decision to halt Russian natural gas to Ukraine because it failed to pay nearly two billion dollars for previous deliveries. 

Ukrainian Prime Minister Arsenyi Yatsenyuk told Parliament his government "believes the gas agreement is part of a Russian plan for aggression, trying to destroy the independence of the country and Ukraine as a state." 

Some put their frustration into action.

Footage has emerged of flames as high as 200 meters at a pipeline, ironically called brotherhood, which carries Russian natural gas to Europe. 

PIPELINE POLTAVA REGION

Ukrainian officials said the fire at the pipeline in central Poltava region was caused by a bomb blast, but there were no injuries. 

Elsewhere, however, two Russian journalists were killed. Cameraman Viktor Denisov of Rossiya 24 television network captured the moment when his colleagues were allegedly hit by a Ukrainian military shell. Correspondent Igor Kornelyuk and sound engineer Anton Voloshin died of their injuries.

MINISTER REPLACED

Amid the turmoil, Ukraine’s Foreign Minister is set to be replaced after making derogatory remarks about Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The comments came during a protest in Kyiv last Saturday where Andrei Dechtchitchsa addressed angry crowds in front of Russia’s embassy.

Moscow had called for his dismissal saying it did not want to talk with him.

Ukraine’s current ambassador in Berlin, Pavlo Klimkin, is being tipped as his replacement, pending parliamentary approval.