Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko will meet with the leaders of France and Germany next week to discuss an upsurge in violence in eastern Ukraine that has cast doubts on a cease-fire deal between the government and pro-Russian separatists.
Poroshenko will meet with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande in Berlin August 24, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said in Paris.
"The situation in east Ukraine causes concern," Fabius said. "Hostilities should stop, it's necessary to fully pull back armaments and stop attacks on representatives of the OSCE mission. It's also necessary to create proper conditions for holding elections in Donbass."
Ukraine and Russia have traded blame for the skirmishes around Ukraine’s southeastern port city of Mariupol.
Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker spoke to Poroshenko August 18 and will also meet with Poroshenko in Brussels, said European Union spokeswoman Annika Breidthardt.
The EU must soon decide about sanctions it has imposed on Russia after pledging to lift them only after all conditions of the Minsk deal are met.