Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, and President François Hollande of France are traveling to Kiev on Thursday to hold talks with President Petro O. Poroschenko of Ukraine, officials from the two countries said. On Friday, the French and German leaders are to continue to Moscow, where they are to meet with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia to discuss the situation in Ukraine.
Mr. Hollande said that he and Ms. Merkel would present a new initiative to end the fighting and guarantee the “full territorial integrity” of Ukraine.
The German and French moves were announced as Secretary of State John Kerry arrived here for high level talks. Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. prepared for parallel consultations on Friday with European leaders in Brussels.
The accelerated Western diplomatic efforts came as the Obama administration was considering whether to send anti-tank missiles, battlefield radars, reconnaissance drones and other arms to help Ukaine’s beleaguered forces stave off attacks by the Russian-backed separatists and build pressure on Moscow to seek a political settlement.
The challenge is to restore a peace agreement that was hammered out in Belarus in September but has been repeatedly violated since then, more seriously by separatists and Russia.
Russia has funneled tanks, rockets and other heavy weapons to the separatists in eastern Ukraine, and has sent about 1,000 of its own troops there to help the separatists with their offensive, according to NATO estimates.
Since the accord was signed in Minsk, the Russian-backed separatists have taken control of about 200 square miles, including the airport at Donetsk, and they are currently threatening Debaltseve, a town that sits astride a critical rail hub.
The assessment of some senior Western officials is that Mr. Putin is trying to supplant the Minsk agreement with a new arrangement that would expand the Kremlin’s influence over Ukraine and would give the separatists a larger, and more economically viable, enclave.
Mr. Kerry, who will announce $16.4 million in humanitarian assistance to help people in eastern Ukraine, plans to press for a new cease-fire.
The Obama administration’s hope is that its widely reported deliberations over whether to send defensive weapons to Ukraine and about consideration of additional economic sanctions will be sufficient to induce the Russians to agree to a halt in the fighting and, ultimately, to a political agreement within the framework of the Minsk accord.
But Mr. Kerry and Mr. Biden will also be consulting with European leaders about ways to increase the pressure on the Kremlin in the absence of a political resolution. Ms. Merkel plans to go to Washington on Monday, and Mr. Obama could decide on whether to send defensive lethal aid soon after.
“We’ve got to test that now as the talk of pressure increases in the United States, in Europe," a senior State Department official said, referring to the effort to restore a cease-fire.
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“We have a Russian government that is talking the talk of cease-fire, talking the talk of peace, even as it fuels this conflict,” said the official who could not be identified under the agency’s protocol for briefing reporters.
“So the question is: If the governments of Ukraine, of the United States, of Europe are appealing now for a new sit-down, will the Kremlin spurn that or will they sit down? And will they push their proxies to do the same?”
Mr. Hollande said France did not favor Ukraine’s entry into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, but he also said that France will not participate in the debate on whether to provide weapons to Ukraine.
“It will not be said that France and Germany together have not tried everything, undertaken everything to preserve the peace,” he said.
During his visit to Kiev, Mr. Kerry plans to meet Mr. Poroshenko, Prime Minister Arseniy P. Yatsenyuk and Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin.
Mr. Biden will be meeting on Friday in Brussels with Donald Tusk, the president of the European Council, Federica Mogherini, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, and other senior European leaders.
Mr. Kerry and Mr. Biden will then meet up in Munich, where a security conference is being held, for a joint meeting with Ms. Merkel and Mr. Poroshenko. Mr. Kerry also plans to meet separately there with Sergey V. Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister.
“We do have three different issue areas in play,” a senior administration official said on Wednesday, discussing Mr. Biden’s trip. “One is the potential to increase the costs to Russia through economic measures. The second is to make sure that Ukraine has the financial support it needs moving forward. And the third is to enhance Ukraine’s ability to defend itself and thereby give the Russians and the separatists a greater incentive to negotiate an end to the conflict.”
Russia’s support for the separatists far outstrips the assistance the United States and European nations have provided to Ukraine.
The Russians have sent modern T-80 tanks, whose armor cannot be penetrated by Ukraine’s aging and largely inoperative anti-tank weapons, along with Grad rockets and other heavy weapons. Russian forces have also used electronic jamming equipment to interfere with the Ukrainians communications.
In contrast, the Obama administration has promised about $118 million for training and nonlethal equipment for Ukraine’s Defense Ministry, State Border Guard Service and National Guard. But only half of that aid actually been delivered, State Department officials acknowledge.
The United States is also preparing plans for $120 million in additional training and equipment.
Ukraine has submitted a long request for arms and equipment, including ammunition, sniper rifles, mortars, grenade launchers, anti-tank missiles, armored personnel carriers, mobile field hospitals, counterbattery radars and reconnaissance drones.
The Russians have a history of advancing negotiating proposals that contain enough hints of flexibility, along with their demands, to undermine the push for tougher sanctions in Europe.
The $16.4 million in aid that Mr. Kerry will announce in Kiev is intended to help people trapped by the fighting in Donetsk and Luhansk. The aid will be used to buy basic items like blankets and clothing, along with counseling for traumatized civilians and to help those who have fled the fighting.
The funds will support the work by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees and other international organizations. Including the $16.4 million, the United States’ humanitarian aid to Ukraine since the crisis began is more than $38 million, the State Department said.
nytimes.com
