Ukraine on Tuesday signed much-anticipated accords with separatists from the country’s east, Russia and European monitors that agree a local election can be held in separatist-controlled territory, paving the way for peace talks with Moscow. The signing at a meeting in the Belarusian capital of Minsk was largely seen as the new Ukrainian government taking a major step toward resolving the prolonged armed conflict in eastern Ukraine that has killed more than 13,000 people and displaced more than 1 million since 2014. Ukrainian nationalists protested the development, with hundreds gathering on Kyiv’s Maidan, the square that symbolizes Ukraine’s resistance to Russian influence.
