Ukraine crisis: Putin to confer with leaders by phone

RUSSIAN President Vladimir Putin is to discuss a peace plan for east Ukraine with the German, French and Ukrainian leaders by phone.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande are pushing a plan to end bloody fighting between government and rebel forces.

Meeting Mr Putin in Moscow on Friday, they agreed to four-way talks with Ukraine’s Petro Poroshenko on Sunday.

More than 5,000 people have been killed in the east since April.

Thousands more have been injured and more than a million have fled their homes.

Ukraine’s military reported continued shelling on Saturday, accusing the rebels of preparing new offensives, while the rebels accused the government itself of attacking along the line dividing their forces.

Mr Poroshenko has called on the West for support up to and including weapons.

He made the plea at a security conference in Munich on Saturday, when he brandished passports that he said were those of Russian troops in Ukraine.

Russia denies intervening directly in eastern Ukraine.Mrs Merkel told the conference in Munich that there was no guarantee diplomacy would succeed but it was “definitely worth trying”.

The plan is thought to be an attempt to revive a failed ceasefire deal signed in Minsk, in Belarus, in September. Since then, the rebels have seized more ground, raising alarm in Kiev and among Ukraine’s backers.

Mr Hollande said it would include a demilitarised zone of 50-70km (31-44 miles) around the current front line.

The French leader has described the Franco-German plan as “one of the last chances” to end the conflict.

“If we fail to find a lasting peace agreement, we know the scenario perfectly well – it has a name, it is called war,” he said.The US is said to be considering pleas to send weapons to Ukraine.

Mrs Merkel, however, said she could not “imagine any situation in which improved equipment for the Ukrainian army leads to President Putin being so impressed that he believes he will lose militarily”.

The statement put her in opposition to Nato’s top military commander, US Air Force general Philip Breedlove, who told reporters that Western allies should not “preclude out of hand the possibility of the military option”.

US Vice-President Joe Biden said the US would “continue to provide Ukraine with security assistance not to encourage war, but to allow Ukraine to defend itself”.

“Let me be clear – we do not believe there is a military solution in Ukraine,” he said. “But let me be equally clear – we do not believe Russia has the right to do what they’re doing.”