Leaders to discuss ‘last chance’ Ukraine peace bid

KIEV: French, German and Ukrainian leaders are to discuss a last-ditch peace bid for east Ukraine with Vladimir Putin today, after the US called for "deeds" from the Russian leader accused of masterminding the conflict.
President Francois Hollande and Chancellor Angela Merkel were to join Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and Putin for a phone call, after Western leaders warned the peace drive may be a "last chance" to stop all-out war.
In a dramatic gesture at a gathering of world leaders in Germany on Saturday, Poroshenko brandished passports and military ID cards he said were seized from Russian soldiers deep inside his territory, offering what he said was "evidence" of Russia's presence in the country.
"Today a former strategic partner is waging a hidden war against a sovereign state," he said at the Munich Security Conference.
Fresh fighting in the former Soviet republic claimed eight civilian lives, separatist authorities said, with Kiev accusing the rebels of massing heavy weapons ahead of a new offensive.
Merkel set the conference agenda in Munich as she championed the peace plan that she and Hollande took to Putin in Moscow late Friday.
"It is uncertain whether it will lead to success, but from my point of view and that of the French president it is definitely worth trying," she said.
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier told national television the fate of the joint European push would be known in "two or three days".
US Vice-President Joe Biden injected a note of caution: "Given Russia's recent history, we need to judge its deeds not its words. Don't tell us, show us, Putin!"
A senior State Department official said the plan is based on a widely flouted ceasefire deal reached in Minsk in September, but admitted the initiative was still "very much in flux and evolution".
Hollande told French TV station France2 that the stakes could not be higher, warning that the renewed peace plan was "one of the last chances" to halt the 10-month-old conflict.
Momentum has built in Washington for giving Kiev hi-tech military equipment, but Merkel insisted such a step would only make matters worse. – AFP