The leaders of Ukraine, Russia, Germany and France may be close to agreement following all-night talks on resolving the Ukraine conflict, diplomatic sources told Reuters.
Details remained unclear after more than 14 hours of peace talks in the Belarus capital Minsk, with one source saying there was hope agreement could reached and another saying a document would be signed.
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But the document, which may be a joint declaration rather than a full agreement, may be signed by lower level envoys rather than by the leaders themselves, the sources said.
The sources said any agreement would however be sent to a “contact group” which includes representatives of the pro-Russian rebels, whose involvement could be crucial.
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The discussions came as pro-Moscow separatists tightened the pressure on Kyiv by launching some of the war’s worst fighting on Wednesday, killing 19 Ukrainian soldiers in assaults near the railway town of Debaltseve.
Fighting has already killed more than 5,000 people, and Washington is now openly talking of arming Ukraine to defend itself from ‘Russian aggression’, raising the prospect of a proxy war in the heart of Europe between Cold War foes.
The summit was held in neighbouring Belarus under a Franco-German proposal to try to halt the fighting in eastern Ukraine.
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Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Francois Hollande joined Ukraine’s Petro Poroshenko and Russia’s Vladimir Putin for a longer-than-expected meeting that began early on Wednesday evening and continued well into Thursday morning.
A Ukrainian presidential aide, Valeriy Chaly, had earlier described the four-way talks as “a battle of nerves”.
As the talks began, Poroshenko said that without a de-escalation of the conflict and a ceasefire the situation would get “out of control”.
The outcome of the talks is expected to influence discussions at an EU summit in Brussels on Thursday, when sanctions against Moscow will be on the agenda.
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Moscow has put forward a number of terms, unacceptable to Kyiv at the ongoing top-level negotiations on settling the Ukraine crisis in Minsk, French media reported with reference to Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko.
“Russia is setting unacceptable terms,” France 24 has quoted Poroshenko as saying. Nevertheless, Poroshenko said he was still hopeful that the negotiations could be successful.
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The leaders of the Normandy Quartet have resumed negotiations on Ukraine in Minsk.
Petro Poroshenko and Vladimir Putin left the room where the talks were proceeding at about 9:00 a.m., but now they have returned, an Interfax correspondent reported.
The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) special representative and member of the Trilateral Contact Group Heidi Tagliavini joined the four leaders in the negotiation room later.
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Separatist leaders are reported to have rejected the outline agreement hammered out by Mr Putin, Mr Poroshenko, Mrs Merkel and Mr Hollande. TASS, the Russian news agency, cited an anonymous source saying separatist leaders had refused to sign an agreement hammered out by the four national leaders overnight.
Alexander Zakharchenko and Igor Plotnitsky, separatist leaders of the self proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk republics, are in Minsk where they are attending a meeting of a multilateral “contact group,” but are not party to the talks between Mr Putin and Mr Poroshenko.
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The International Monetary Fund and conflict-torn Ukraine have reached a preliminary deal on a new financial rescue plan worth $17.5 billion dollars, the organisation’s chief Christine Lagarde said on Thursday, AFP reports.
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The document being negotiated at the ongoing French-German-Russian-Ukrainian top-level talks aimed at settling the Ukraine crisis in Minsk stipulates a ceasefire in Donbas to begin February 14 and the establishment of a security zone, the Ukrainian Embassy to Belarus reported on Thursday.
“The document being prepared for signature in Minsk presumes a ceasefire starting February 14, the withdrawal of heavy weapons, and the establishment of a security zone,” the embassy said on Twitter on Thursday morning.
