SYDNEY, Australia -- Ukraine's president says a fragile truce between his government's troops and Russian-backed separatists in east Ukraine has resulted in the seven-month-old conflict's first day free of deaths or injuries for his soldiers.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said in a speech Friday in Sydney that the lull in fighting appeared to be holding. He says it marks the first 24-hour period since the crisis erupted in which none of his soldiers or civilians were killed or injured.
Poroshenko called Tuesday for the tentative truce in a bid to revive a much-violated cease-fire agreement signed in September. But he acknowledged the deal was still "fragile."
The president is wrapping up a three-day visit to Australia.
