Ukraine, EU to speak with unified voice at Minsk summit - Poroshenko

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has said that Ukraine and the European Union will insist on an unconditional ceasefire in eastern Ukraine at the summit in Minsk.

"I can reassure you that Ukraine and the EU will speak from a united position at the Minsk summit. We'll be speaking in one voice and our key position is - we stress and insist - we need an unconditional ceasefire without any pre-conditions," the president told the government in Kyiv on Wednesday.

"We want peace, we want to live in Ukraine, we want an integral Ukraine, we want to restore order, stop the aggression, we want the invader's troops to leave Ukrainian territory," Poroshenko said after recounting witnessing the aftermath of an artillery attack in Kramatorsk.

"All this [the shelling of civilians in the east of the country] is happening right on the eve of the Minsk summit in the Normandy format, involving France, Germany, Ukraine and Russia, perhaps the most important and critical date in Ukrainian history," the president stressed.

The delay in the Cabinet meeting was due to the telephone coordination of the last-minute preparations for the Minsk summit, he said.