KIEV, June 25 – The U.S. and Ukraine will probably by October sign agreements on deliveries of defense weapons, President Petro Poroshenko said on Sunday, days after meeting U.S. President Donald Trump.

US Defense Secretary James Mattis, whom Poroshenko also met in Washington, is expected to arrive in Ukraine within the next two-three months, a timeframe when the agreements may be signed, he said.

“It was confirmed at the meeting with the Secretary of Defense that the decision on supplies of defense weapons will be approved before the end of the [U.S.] fiscal year,” Poroshenko said in an interview with Ukrainian television aired Sunday. “You know that it ends by October.”

Ukraine has been seeking to secure supplies of lethal weapons from the U.S. ever since Russia has unleashed a hybrid warfare against the country by annexing Crimea in March 2014.

Barack Obama’s administration had been lukewarm on providing lethal weapons to Ukraine amid concerns the shipments may provoke Russia to launch more aggressive attacks.

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, earlier in the week cautioned the U.S. against supplies of lethal weapons to Ukraine.

Two Ukrainian soldiers were killed and two wounded in the eastern part of the country despite a cease-fire that began on June 23, the Ukrainian military reported Saturday.

In a statement posted on Facebook on June 24, the military accused antigovernment rebels of firing artillery rounds in both the Luhansk and Donetsk regions. The statement did not provide details about the casualties.

The two sides and representatives of Moscow and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe agreed on the cease-fire on June 21. It is intended to last until August 31 to allow locals to harvest crops.

Representatives of the Russia-backed rebels on June 24 accused government forces of violating the cease-fire 10 times, adding that information about the purported violations had been sent to the OSCE monitors.

The conflict in eastern Ukraine has claimed more than 10,000 lives since it began in early 2014, shortly after Moscow annexed the Ukrainian region of Crimea. (nr/ez)