Ukraine to continue talks with Russia, OSCE

Representatives from Kiev, Moscow and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) would continue their talks to normalise the situation in the eastern Ukraine, former Ukrainian president Leonid Kuchma said Thursday.

"Tomorrow, we are going to continue the negotiations," Xinhua quoted Kuchma, a representative of the contact group, as saying.

Kuchma said the meeting would take place in Ukraine, without giving further details.

Earlier Thursday, a self-styled leader of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, Andrey Purgin, said insurgents in the east would seek a continuation of the ceasefire with government troops at the negotiations.

The first round of consultations June 23, initiated by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko involved Kuchma, OSCE officials, Russian ambassador Mykhail Zurabov and representatives from the restive Donetsk and Lugansk regions.

During the negotiations, the insurgents agreed to cease fighting till June 27, the deadline of a week-long truce declared earlier by Poroshenko.

Poroshenko unveiled a plan of a unilateral ceasefire, power decentralisation in the country through constitutional reform, early parliamentary elections and local elections in the crisis-hit regions in an attempt to quell the unrest.

Ukraine plunged into chaos in late February after the ouster of the previous pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovych. Pro-Russian regions in Ukraine, mainly in the east, protested against the interim government, which is pro-West.