Truce reached to evacuate civilians from Ukraine city

A temporary humanitarian truce was reached Friday between the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) and Kiev to evacuate civilians from the southeastern Ukrainian town of Debaltseve.

"A convoy of buses carrying civilians has left the town," head of DPR's defence ministry Eduard Basurin said.

Zoryan Shkiryak, advisor to Ukraine's interior minister, also confirmed the truce in Debaltseve, Xinhua news agency reported.

According to earlier reports, civilians in Debaltseve are free to choose where they want to go -- the town of Artemivsk which is under the control of the Ukrainian army or Donetsk which is controlled by the militia.

Basurin said this was the first time Kiev had agreed with the militia's proposal to allow civilians to leave the war-torn town of Debaltseve.

On Thursday, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko met visiting US Secretary of State John Kerry in Kiev where they discussed the crisis in Ukraine, stressing the need for a diplomatic solution to the ongoing conflict in the eastern regions.

Kerry said that the US was ready to work further with Ukraine to seek a peaceful solution to the crisis.