Merkel, Hollande to Moscow for crisis talks

The German and French leaders were due to visit Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Friday in a major diplomatic push to end almost a year's bloodshed in eastern Ukraine that has escalated over the past three weeks.

At least 21 people were killed in fresh clashes during a 24-hour period ending late Thursday as separatists tried to push deeper into Ukrainian government-held territory, according to the news agency AFP.

In Moscow late Thursday, Putin's advisor Yuri Ushakov said Russia was "ready for a constructive conversation" with the two leaders from western Europe which has warned against suggestions that the US provide fresh arms to Kyiv.

'New proposal'

"Everyone wants peace, and we expect Russia wants that, too," said German government spokesman Steffen Seibert.

French President Francois Hollande said he and German Chancellor Angela Merkel were presenting "a new proposal for a comprehensive settlement based on the territorial integrity of Ukraine."

The pair left their talks with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko in Kyiv late Thursday without comment.

In Moscow, Ushakov said the Franco-German initiative took into account Putin's own "peace" proposals, reportedly spanning nine pages.

Details unclear

Details remained unclear, but earlier Germany's Süddeutsche Zeitung daily said the initiative would mean greater autonomy within Ukraine for the separatists, across a larger area than agreed in a failed truce deal reach last September in Minsk.

Berlin dismissed as "not accurate" the report in the newspaper based in Munich, where an annual international security conference is taking place over the weekend.

Last weekend, a bid to renew peace talks in the Belarusian capital collapsed when rebel leaders stayed away.

Obama 'reviewing all options'

Arriving in Kyiv on Thursday hours before Merkel and Hollande, US Secretary of State John Kerry said he knew of the European initiative but did not have all the details.

Kerry brought a US offer of $16 million (12 million euros) in new humanitarian aid for Ukraine as President Barack Obama and the US Congress weighed sending arms to the beleaguered Kyiv government.

He told a press conference that Obama was "reviewing all his options" but added that Washington wanted diplomacy to work and was "not interested in a proxy war."

"Our objective is to change Russia's behavior," Kerry said, referring to repeated Western accusations, denied by Moscow, that Russia has sent equipment and troops to separatist areas of eastern Ukraine.

NATO boosts standby forces

In Brussels, top NATO commander, US General Philip Breedlove said Russia continued to supply the separatists with state-of-the-art weapons.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said the alliance's defense ministers had decided to proceed with forming a quick-reaction force of 5,000 ground troops and boost the size of its Response Force from 13,00 to 30,000 personnel.

The decisions would "ensure that we have the right forces in the right place at the right time," Stoltenberg said.

Arms 'wrong path'

At the Brussels talks, German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen said delivering weapons was the "wrong path."

"We have to maintain political and economic pressure on Russia in order to find a solution to the conflict and ease the suffering of civilians in eastern Ukraine," she said.

In a further sign of the crisis' impact on Ukraine, its currency, the Hryvnia, fell sharply in value against the US dollar on Thursday.

Western sanctions have already contributed to a sharp decline in Russia's economy.

ipj/bw (AFP, AP, dpa)