French, German leaders head to Ukraine with new peace initiative
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Jan. 30, 2015: French President Francois Hollande, left, greets German Chancellor Angela Merkel, prior to their informal dinner at the restaurant, Zum Ysehuet, in Strasbourg, France. (AP Photo/Christian Lutz, Pool)
The leaders of France and Germany were carrying a new peace initiative to the Ukrainian and Russian capitals Thursday, amid a flurry of high-level diplomacy to end what French President Francois Hollande called a war on Europe's edge.
Hollande said he and German Chancellor Angela Merkel would travel to Kiev on Thursday and then to Moscow the following day, with a proposal "based on the territorial integrity of Ukraine." In a sign of the importance of the initiative and urgency of the situation, this will be Merkel's first trip to Moscow since Ukraine's conflict broke out a year ago.
"It will not be said that France and Germany together have not tried everything, undertaken everything to preserve the peace," Hollande said.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is also in Ukraine, to show support for the government amid a fast-moving flurry of international diplomacy.
"Given the escalation of violence in the past days, the chancellor and President Hollande are intensifying their months-long efforts for a peaceful settlement of the conflict in eastern Ukraine," Merkel's spokesman, Steffen Seibert, said in a statement.