Hollande, Merkel go to Kiev, Moscow with new Ukraine peace plan
The French president said he would travel to Kiev with the German chancellor on Thursday, to find a peaceful solution to the intensifying violence in the Ukrainian conflict. They are set to visit Moscow on the second day of their trip on Friday, RT reported.
The leaders of Germany and France will meet with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko in Kiev on Thursday and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Friday, according to Reuters.
"Together with Angela Merkel we have decided to take a new initiative," Hollande told a news conference. "We will make a new proposal to solve the conflict which will be based on Ukraine's territorial integrity."
"In view of the escalating violence in recent days, the chancellor and President Hollande are intensifying their efforts, which have been going on for months, for a peaceful settlement to the conflict in eastern Ukraine," Merkel's spokesman Steffen Seibert said in a statement.
According to Hollande, the joint initiative of France and Germany is aimed at producing a text “acceptable to all,” as "diplomacy can't go on forever." The French president also said that France is not in favor of Ukraine joining NATO.