Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko finds himself in the middle of two angry sides with his proposed ceasefire with pro-Moscow separatists in the east.  The militants are rejecting it, and his constituents in Kiev say they didn’t go through all of the trouble and bloodshed of the Euromaidan protests just to make nice with Russian aggression.

Poroshenko is offering amnesty to separatists who give up and turn themselves in, and promises a fair investigation to determine who were the instigators.

Kiev’s new city council held its first session Thursday, marked with residents complaining about the poor state of preparedness of Ukrainian troops.  A group of wives and mothers said they want their men brought home immediately because they’re outgunned and unprepared.

“There is no ceasing fire,” said Irina Labun, “We have only a ceasefire from one side – our side.  Our boys don’t have the right to shoot.  And the militants are shooting at them.”

The protests in Maidan Square aren’t as big as months ago when they effectively tossed Viktor Yanukovich from the presidency.  But they’ve continued every day since.  And while some protesters understand the humanitarian reasons for Poroshenko’s ceasefire, they don’t like it and they don’t want to give the separatists any time to regroup.

Meanwhile in the east, the tide has turned.  Government troops now have the separatists on the back foot, after weeks of losing ground and hardware to those who favor Moscow.  A rebel commander admitted big losses among separatists heavily outgunned by government forces in the offensive north of Donetsk.  But he refused to back down, and also called on Moscow to come to his aid.

As for Russia, any thoughts of pulling back from the Ukraine border are off.  NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen estimated that Russia has redeployed “at least a few thousand” troops near the border with Ukraine.  Earlier, Russia moved several Sukoi Su-34 fighter jets to the air base at Rostov, just off of Ukraine’s eastern border.