Moscow---German Chancellor Angela Merkel played down hopes of a rapid end to surging violence in Ukraine on Friday before flying to Moscow with French President Francois Hollande in a new truce bid.
"We know that it is completely open as to whether we'll succeed in achieving a ceasefire through these talks," Merkel told reporters in Berlin, saying the surprise initiative to be put to Russian President Vladimir Putin was aimed at defending "European peace".
"We don't know whether that will succeed today, whether perhaps further talks on it are necessary," she said.
Merkel said that through their visits to Kiev on Thursday and the imminent trip to Moscow, she and Hollande were seeking a quick end to the bloodshed and to revive the widely flouted truce accord agreed in Minsk last September.
Merkel and Hollande's Kiev visit was part of the biggest push yet to resolve the 10-month conflict, with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko saying their talks raised "hope for a ceasefire".
European Union officials said Thursday that the bloc will blacklist more Russian individuals over Ukraine, and it is hoped that the possibility that broader sanctions could be toughened up will encourage Russia to agree to a peace deal.
- Fighting for survival -
As fears have soared of an escalation in the conflict and concern over possible divisions between the United States and Europe on whether to supply arms to Kiev, US Vice President Joe Biden said Ukraine was battling for survival in the face of escalating Russian military involvement.
"We, the US and Europe as a whole, have to stand with Ukraine at this moment," Biden said in Brussels. "Ukraine is fighting for their very survival right now."
Hollande said they were heading to Moscow to "seek a deal" with Putin -- who the West sees as the mastermind behind Ukraine's pro-Moscow rebellion -- that would help end the crisis in the long-term.
"Everyone is aware that the first step must be a ceasefire, but that is not enough and there must be a comprehensive settlement," Hollande told reporters ahead of his departure.
The frantic high-level diplomacy to end the worst East-West crisis since the end of the Cold War came as US Secretary of State John Kerry also visited Kiev on Thursday and Washington mulled whether to supply arms to the Ukraine army.
"President Putin can make the choices that could end this war," Kerry said, voicing support for the "helpful" Franco-German plan to be put to the Russian leader on Friday.
AFP
