Putin, Poroshenko agree to cease-fire in Ukraine after surge in violence

KIEV, Ukraine — It was a high-stakes, multi-act roller coaster of a drama played out on Internet live streams and social media.

It took more than half of a day of intense wrangling, but Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, as well as pro-Russian separatist leaders, agreed in the Belarusian capital of Minsk on Wednesday to a crucial new cease-fire to stem the deadly violence raging in eastern Ukraine.

The armistice, hashed out over the course of more than 16 painstaking hours of negotiations through Wednesday night and into Thursday morning, calls for guns to go quiet in war-torn eastern Ukraine starting at midnight on Feb. 14, and for the drawback of heavy weapons, Putin told reporters after the talks Read more...

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