Vladimir Putin's Seven-Point Plan For Peace In Ukraine: What Does The Document Say Exactly?

Russian President Vladimir Putin made public on Wednesday a seven-point plan for peace in the ongoing conflict between Ukraine and pro-Russian separatist rebels in the country’s east.

Speaking to reporters in the Mongolian capital Ulan Bator, where he had just arrived on a state visit, Putin said he had “sketched out” a plan during his flight from Russia and then proceeded to read from a notebook a plan centered on “militias” ceasing “military advances in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions.”

Putin’s announcement came after news of a ceasefire agreement between Ukraine and Russia was followed on Wednesday by the clarification that the only agreement currently existing is about a “ceasefire process,” not an actual suspension of hostilities.

Putin’s plan will be discussed on Friday at a four-party meeting in Minsk, Belarus, between Ukraine, Russia, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, and representatives of the rebels who have proclaimed a self-styled “Donetsk People’s Republic” in the east of Ukraine.

“On my way here from [the city of] Blagoveschensk to Ulan-Bator [Mongolia], I outlined some ideas and plan of actions. It’s here, but in handwriting,” Putin told reporters, according to RT, a government-controlled Russian news outlet in English.

Here is Putin’s plan, in the translation provided by RT.

1. Militias should cease military advances in the Donetsk and Lugansk Regions.

2. Pro-Kiev armed forces should withdraw to a distance that excludes the possibility of shelling settlements.

3. Implement full and objective international control over ceasefire observation and monitoring.

4. Exclude the use of combat aircraft against civilians and villages.

5. Prisoner/captive-exchange via an ‘all-in-all’ formula, without preconditions.

6. Humanitarian corridors for refugees movement and delivery of humanitarian aid across Donetsk and Lugansk Regions.

7. Direct repair-crew access to destroyed social and transit infrastructure with supportive aid.

(The original Russian text of the plan is below, as published by the Ukrainian newspaper Ukrainska Pravda.)