Ukraine’s new President Petro Poroshenko said today that he is ready to sign a peace deal with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. He said that negotiations would continue with Russian separatists in the eastern Ukraine, the day his unilaterally declared cease-fire expires and also the day when he signs a controversial cooperation agreement with the EU at the EU summit in Brussels.

“I am optimistic and I’m thinking that within a few weeks, maybe months, we can have a deal to establish peace,” Poroshenko said in the interview with CNN while he was in Brussels for EU talks that will include signing the cooperation agreement between Europe and the former Soviet satellite.