Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko on Monday announced that another round of peace talks between his country and Russia with the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe is to be held in Minsk on December 24 and 26.

The dates were finalized via a phone conversation between French President Francois Hollande, Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Poroshenko said all three leaders emphasized the need to implement the next steps of the ceasefire plan that were agreed upon back in September.

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The first ceasefire plan, also talked about in Minsk, aimed to end the separatist conflict in Ukraine especially in the Eastern territories where the war is much more evident as records show, the conflict has resulted to the killing of over 4,700 people.

Poroshenko added that they will discuss the withdrawal of the heavy weapons that were sent by the Russian forces and also the speedy release of the hostages, though it was not specified from which country.

The September ceasefire agreement was broken by both countries but the violence between the pro-Russian separatists and the Ukrainians have already lessened towards December as compared to the attacks made by both sides during the earlier months.

The lessening of the violence has led to hopes again that the plans from the previous talks will already push through and that the war will finally be over.

The separatists have opposed the government in Kiev and wanted to seek union with Russia just a month after the Kremlin has seized Crimea's Black Sea peninsula from Ukraine last March.

Russia has been sanctioned a couple of times from seizing Crimea and from allegedly supporting the pro-Russian separatist. 

TagsUkraine, PEACE TALKS, Minks, Petro Poroshenko, angela merkel, Russia