Ukraine's Poroshenko agrees 'ceasefire process' with Putin

Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko says he has agreed with Russian President Putin by phone on a "ceasefire process" for the east.

His office initially reported that a "permanent ceasefire" had been agreed but later revised its statement.

The Kremlin stressed Mr Putin had not agreed to a ceasefire as Russia was not party to the conflict.

US President Barack Obama has expressed solidarity with Baltic member-states of Nato on a visit to Estonia.

He is in the Estonian capital Tallinn with President Toomas Hendrik Ilves of Estonia and the leaders of Latvia and Lithuania, all former Soviet states which joined Nato a decade ago.

A Nato summit opening in Wales on Thursday is expected to back plans for a rapid response force.

The rebels in Ukraine's eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk have said that there can be no ceasefire until the government withdraws its forces, the BBC's Steve Rosenberg reports from Moscow.

In other developments

- Russia confirmed the death of photojournalist Andrei Stenin in Ukraine on 6 August, saying he had been killed in a Ukrainian government ambush on a convoy of rebels and refugees near Donetsk.

- Russia is to hold military exercises in the south Siberian region of Altai this month involving more than 4,000 soldiers and air power, a defence ministry official told a Russian news agency.

The earlier version of the statement on the Ukrainian presidential website read: "Their conversation resulted in agreement on a permanent ceasefire in the Donbass region [the regions of Donetsk and Luhansk]."

However, this has now been changed to: "Their conversation resulted in agreement on a process for ceasing fire in the Donbass region."

Bakudaily.Az