KIEV (Sputnik) – Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande started their meeting in Kiev on Thursday evening, Poroshenko’s spokesman said.
He said the leaders were not expected to make any press statements directly after the meeting.
Earlier in the day, it was announced that, following talks in Kiev primarily focusing on the Ukraine crisis settlement, Hollande and Merkel would travel to Moscow on Friday.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told RIA Novosti that the during the Moscow meeting the leaders would discuss specific steps to put an end to the bloodshed in Ukraine.
Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany participate in the so-called Normandy format talks on Ukrainian reconciliation.
The military confrontation between Kiev forces and independence supporters in eastern Ukraine began in April 2014 and recently intensified despite a ceasefire agreement reached in September at the Contact Group meeting in Minsk. The internal conflict has so far claimed lives of over 5,000, according to the United Nations.
