Representatives of Ukraine and separatist rebels agreed Wednesday to pull back troops and weapons from several areas in eastern Ukraine in an attempt to shore up a fragile peace agreement. Darka Olifer, spokeswoman for ex-President Leonid Kuchma who represents Ukraine in the so-called Contact Group, said that the agreement signed in the Belarusian capital, Minsk, applies to three specific areas and will be monitored by observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. The conflict in eastern Ukraine between Russian-backed separatist rebels and Ukrainian government troops has killed more than 9,600 people since it erupted in April 2014, according to the U.N.