French President Francois Hollande called on all parties in the Ukraine conflict to draw up a roadmap to end the crisis, after talks with his Ukrainian counterpart on Thursday.
The aim would be to help Ukraine regain control of its borders with Russia, he said after speaking by telephone with Petro Poroshenko, the French presidency said in a statement.
Hollande had spoken Wednesday with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Russian President Vladimir Putin about organising a summit on the conflict.
Russia, which annexed Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula in 2014, backs a separatist, pro-Moscow insurgency in eastern Ukraine that has claimed nearly 10,000 lives.
Moscow has denied accusations that it has sent troops and weaponry across its border with Ukraine to fuel the conflict.
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said Thursday he hoped the ceasefire in the separatist-held east, part of a deal signed in September, would hold.
"We have no reason for complacency," he told journalists in Strasbourg, eastern France, where he is attending a Council of Europe meeting.
"We are trying to stabilise the ceasefire," he said, adding: "We are advancing, but slowly, millimetre by millimetre."
Germany currently holds the rotating presidency of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which has monitors in eastern Ukraine.
All sides agreed to a peace deal brokered by Germany and France in February 2015, but while the so-called Minsk accords reduced the intensity of fighting, they failed to stop it.
Steinmeier said Thursday there was "no alternative" to the accords.
France is pursuing efforts to organise a summit on the Ukraine conflict despite tensions with Russia over Syria.
French President Francois Hollande called on all parties in the Ukraine conflict to draw up a roadmap to end the crisis, after talks with his Ukrainian counterpart on Thursday.
The aim would be to help Ukraine regain control of its borders with Russia, he said after speaking by telephone with Petro Poroshenko, the French presidency said in a statement.
Hollande had spoken Wednesday with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Russian President Vladimir Putin about organising a summit on the conflict.
Russia, which annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in 2014, backs a separatist, pro-Moscow insurgency in eastern Ukraine that has claimed nearly 10,000 lives.
Moscow has denied accusations that it has sent troops and weaponry across its border with Ukraine to fuel the conflict.
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said Thursday he hoped the ceasefire in the separatist-held east, part of a deal signed in September, would hold.
“We have no reason for complacency,” he told journalists in Strasbourg, eastern France, where he is attending a Council of Europe meeting.
“We are trying to stabilise the ceasefire,” he said, adding: “We are advancing, but slowly, millimetre by millimetre.”
Germany currently holds the rotating presidency of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which has monitors in eastern Ukraine.
All sides agreed to a peace deal brokered by Germany and France in February 2015, but while the so-called Minsk accords reduced the intensity of fighting, they failed to stop it.
Steinmeier said Thursday there was “no alternative” to the accords.
France is pursuing efforts to organise a summit on the Ukraine conflict despite tensions with Russia over Syria.
