Ukraine's new leader vows to put an end to fighting this week

Ukraine's newly elected President Petro Poroshenko has reportedly promised to put an end to the three month old separatist revolt in eastern Ukraine by this week.

After talks with Moscow's ambassador to Kiev and an envoy from the Vienna-based Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Poroshenko said that the fighting had to be ended this week.

According to News24, the 48-year-old candy magnate - dubbed the "chocolate king" - delivered a forceful inauguration address the day before in which he vowed never to accept Russia's seizure of Crimea or give up on Ukraine's new pro-European course.

While the insurgents dismissed the president's pledge as a political stunt, Poroshenko, on the other hand, maintained silence on how he intended to make the pro-Russian gunmen comply with the ceasefire or whether he would order a full military withdrawal from the restive Donetsk and Lugansk regions, the repot said.

Meanwhile, he refused to hold dialogue with "gangsters and killers," who, according to both Kiev and the Western nations, have Kremlin support.

The political veteran also said separatists who had "no blood on their hands" would be offered safe passage back to Russia, the report added.