ANKARA
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has confirmed that pro-Russian rebels in the east have withdrawn a large part of their heavy weapons from conflict areas.
Speaking on TV late on Monday, Poroshenko said Ukrainian army forces had also removed their heavy artillery and rockets.
Both sides have acted late in terms of the Feb. 20 cease-fire which called for withdrawals in the first week of March. But fighting continued after the cease-fire was declared in a number of areas of eastern Ukraine.
Now the cease-fire seems to be working, Poroshenko said.
At least 6,000 people are reported to have been died in the conflict, according to UN reports, and more than one million have fled their homes since conflict erupted last April in the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk.
Separately, in a television documentary aired late on Monday night, Russian President Vladimir Putin admitted that he had planned the annexation of Ukrainian province Crimea before the people of the region voted to join Russia on March 18.
Putin said he had ordered government officials to "work on "returning Crimea" at an all-night meeting on Feb. 22.
The meeting was called after Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych was ousted -- the event which triggered both the annexation of Crimea and the rebellion in eastern Ukraine.
Putin had said only that he took his final decision about Crimea after secret, undated opinion polls showed that 80 percent of Crimeans favoured joining Russia.
Russia's annexation of Crimea has been condemned by the UN and by most other nations. Russia has faced economic sanctions from the West as a result of the move.
