Peace in Ukraine is the need of the hour – Merkel and Hollande to present plan to Putin

#ukrainepeacetalks #AngelaMerkel #FrancoisHollande #JohnKerry With over 5000 dead already in the violence in Ukraine and with the numbers increasing on a regular basis, the need of the hour is to work out a peace plan for Ukraine and, Angela Merkel and Francois Hollande have taken up this task as reported in theguardian.com dated 6 February 2015. The German and French leaders will be meeting Putin to put up the peace plan to him in the hope of getting a possible breakthrough.
This meeting has been convened in a hurry after Putin put forth his own plan and France and Germany responded with counter-proposals. The urgency was due to an upsurge of fighting and growing European fears of US intervention.
The US had taken a decision to supply arms to Kiev and, in case that really happened, it could trigger an uncontrollable rise in violence.
US Secretary of State John Kerry has indicated that the US wanted a diplomatic solution but was keeping all of its options open and these included “the possibility of providing defensive systems to Ukraine”.
Following a temporary ceasefire between pro-Russia rebels and the Ukrainian authorities, a human corridor was created to remove civilians from the heart of fighting in eastern Ukraine. As per the agreement, the understanding was to evacuate civilians from Debaltseve. This is a railway hub and has become the main target of a rebel offensive because of its strategic location.