We're inching towards peace with Russia

Fifteen months into Ukraine's bitter conflict, some have begun to hope that the region's first effective ceasefire just might turn into a longer peace.

Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko, who says he has worked "every day and night" of those 15 months, is not ready to dream just yet. "This is not the end of the war, but instead a change in tactics," he told The Independent in a rare interview. "We know where the Russians and their proxies are still hiding their weapons, their tanks and their artillery – for now the order has been given to cease fire, but for how long?"

Though the ceasefire has held for two weeks, other conditions of February's Minsk agreement have not yet been met. Meanwhile, Ukraine says it has drawn up its own "red lines" in collaboration with its Western partners. Among them is full and immediate access to rebel-held areas for international monitors, Poroshenko said.

Failure to deliver on these conditions would put the entire peace plan at risk, "with clear consequences – and sanctions" for the Russian side. Poroshenko was adamant that "fake" elections in separatist-controlled areas, currently planned for October and November, would draw such a response.

Some reports have suggested Putin has begun to take a more emollient tone in phone calls, but Poroshenko was quick to dismiss any suggestion that personal relations between the two leaders might have improved significantly.