Revised Ukraine peace deal on table

The leaders of Germany and France have announced a new peace plan for Ukraine, flying together to Kiev and then Moscow with a proposal to resolve the conflict that could be “acceptable to all”.

The co-ordinated trip by Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Francois Hollande comes as rebels advanced on a railway hub held by Ukrainian troops after launching an offensive that scuppered a five-month-old ceasefire.

With Washington talking of arming Ukraine for the first time, US Secretary of State John Kerry also visited Kiev. He had no plans to go to Moscow and was not involved in the Franco- German initiative, although he supported it.

Moscow said it hoped the meeting with Merkel and Hollande would be “constructive”. A presidential aide in Kiev said it awaited the talks with “restrained optimism”.

The Franco-German plan looks like an 11th-hour bid by Europe’s core powers to halt the escalation of the conflict ahead of diplomatic deadlines that are likely to make east-west confrontation even worse.

German and French officials gave few details in public of the substance of their new proposals for fear of damaging the delicate diplomacy involved.

Peace talks between the warring sides collapsed on Saturday in Belarus. EU leaders are expected to consider new sanctions against Moscow next week, and Germany hosts world leaders at a conference over the weekend at which Ukraine is expected to head the agenda.

“Together with Angela Merkel we have decided to take a new initiative,” Hollande told a news conference. “We will make a new proposal to solve the conflict which will be based on Ukraine’s territorial integrity,” he said.

He and Merkel met President Petro Poroshenko in Kiev last night and are due to talk to Russia’s Vladimir Putin in Moscow today.

“For several days Angela Merkel and I have worked on a text ... a text that can be acceptable to all,” Hollande said.

Merkel’s spokesman Steffen Seibert said in a statement: “In view of the escalating violence in recent days, the Chancellor and President Hollande are intensifying their efforts, which have been going on for months, for a peaceful settlement to the conflict in eastern Ukraine.”

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, visiting Poland, played down the prospect of a breakthrough.

“I don’t want to talk about the chances (of success). At this stage there is hope, rather than chances.”

Nato says Russia has sent weapons, funds and troops to assist the rebel advance, negating a ceasefire in eastern Ukraine where war has already killed more than 5,000.