Germany and France agree with Putin to work towards Ukraine ceasefire

[BERLIN] The leaders of Germany and France proposed at a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday to draw up a possible joint document to implement the Minsk agreement and bring an end to the fighting in Ukraine, a German government spokesman said. "On the basis of a proposal by Germany's chancellor and France's president, a possible joint document to implement the Minsk agreement will now be worked on," Steffen Seibert said in a statement after the talks in Moscow.

Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Francois Hollande met Putin on Friday evening, a day after holding five hours of late-night talks with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko in an effort to negotiate a peace deal for eastern Ukraine, where pro-Russian rebels have seized large swathes of territory.

REUTERS