THE Russian and Ukrainian presidents have been meeting all night in Belarus to try to secure a peace deal.

Few details have emerged but a Ukrainian presidential aide, Valeriy Chaly, posted on Facebook that a battle of nerves was underway, and they had several more hours of work to do.

Before the talks began, the Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said achieving a ceasefire was essential.

Thousands of people have been killed in the fighting in the east of Ukraine.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande are leading the peace initiative in Minsk.

There was little warmth as Russian President Vladimir Putin shook hands with Ukrainian leader Petro Poroshenko.

Russia has been accused of arming and reinforcing pro-Russian rebels in east Ukraine – a claim it denies.

The talks are set to focus on securing a ceasefire, withdrawal of heavy weapons and creating a demilitarised zone.

On the ground in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk and Luhansk regions, Wednesday saw new attacks:

• Heavy shelling was reported by bloggers in the rebel-held city of Luhansk; a freelance reporter on the ground, Pierre Sautreuil, reported (in French) that a rebel military base seemed to be the target of one bombardment in the south-east of the city

• At least one person died when a hospital was shelled in the rebel-held city of Donetsk, bringing the day’s toll from shelling there to at least six.

• Rebel forces near the strategically important town of Debaltseve bombarded government forces with mortars a day after the government reported the deaths of 19 soldiers in the area