The leaders of Russia, France and Germany have agreed in Moscow to work on a peace plan they will put to Ukraine’s president on Sunday, the BBC reports.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, France’s Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel talked more than four hours on Friday.
All three parties described the meeting as “constructive and substantive”.
They will discuss the plan for eastern Ukraine by phone with President Petro Poroshenko on Sunday.
The plan is thought to be an attempt to revive a September ceasefire, signed in Minsk in Belarus. Since then the rebels have seized more ground, raising alarm in Kiev and among Ukraine’s backers.
Russia is accused of arming and reinforcing pro-Russian separatists – claims it denies.
Fighting has left nearly 5,400 people dead since April, the UN says.
“On the basis of proposals made by the French President and German Chancellor, there is currently ongoing joint work to prepare the text of a possible joint document on the implementation of the Minsk agreements – a document that would include proposals made by Ukrainian President Poroshenko and proposals put forward today by Russian President Putin,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said after the talks between the three leaders finished in Moscow on Friday, rt.com informs.
“On the basis of a proposal by Germany’s chancellor and France’s president, a possible joint document to implement the Minsk agreement will now be worked on,” German government spokesman Steffen Seibert confirmed in a statement.
French President Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel arrived in Moscow on Friday evening. They headed straight to the Kremlin for talks on the Ukrainian crisis with President Vladimir Putin behind closed doors in discussion which lasted for nearly five hours.