A ceasefire agreement for Ukraine has been reached at peace talks in Belarus and will take effect at midnight on Saturday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday after talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, according to dpa. The breakthrough, which was also confirmed by members of the German delegation, came after more than 14 hours of marathon talks in the Belarusian capital Minsk. Merkel and French President Francois Hollande, who spearheaded the peace initiative in an 11th-hour attempt to end hostilities in eastern Ukraine's Donbas region, were due to speak in Minsk later on Thursday. They will then fly to Brussels for a summit of EU leaders, where Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko is due to brief his European partners on the outcome of talks in Minsk.
