1945 all over again?
Talks begin in Moscow:
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande are meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in a diplomatic push for peace in eastern Ukraine.
Merkel and Hollande were to present Putin with a new proposal to end the conflict between government forces and Russian-backed rebels that has killed more than 5,350 people in since April and raised East-West tension to a level unseen since the Cold War.
Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said the three leaders were meeting "eye-to-eye" in the Kremlin without other members of the visiting delegations or lower-level officials.
The talks began at about 7:30 p.m. Moscow time (1630 GMT/UTC).
Merkel, Hollande arrived in Moscow for Ukraine talks:
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande have arrived in Moscow in a diplomatic push for peace in eastern Ukraine.
Merkel and Hollande were to present Russian President Vladimir Putin with a new proposal to end the conflict between government forces and Russian-backed rebels that has killed more than 5,350 people since April and raised East-West tension to a level unseen since the Cold War.
The French and German leaders arrived on separate planes in the early evening.
No details of their proposal have emerged, but Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said talks with Merkel and Hollande in Kyiv on February 5 raised "hope for a cease-fire."
Putin is facing growing Western pressure to abandon support for the separatists, who hold parts of two provinces and have gained ground in a recent escalation that has killed hundreds of people in less than a month.
U.S. Vice President Joe Biden said on February 6 that Russia "continues to escalate the conflict by sending mercenaries and tanks" into Ukraine, and warned that Moscow "cannot be allowed to redraw the map of Europe."