eventually collapsed. Poroshenko said: "They [the leaders] also expect that their efforts during the Minsk meeting will lead to a swift and unconditional two-sided ceasefire." Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Sunday he expected "important decisions" to be made at the Minsk talks. Prior to the telephone call, Hollande and Merkel warned that the peace drive was a "last chance" to stop all-out war. US and EU disagreement Earlier, US Secretary of State John Kerry denied the US and Europe were at odds over the conflict, despite a debate over whether to arm the government in Kiev. Kerry said the US supported efforts by France and Germany to produce a new plan to end the conflict raging in east Ukraine. "There is no division, there is no split," Kerry said. "I keep hearing people trying to create one. We are united, we are working closely together." Adding to the tension surrounding the discussions, Britain's Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said Putin was "acting like some kind of 20th century tyrant". "Ukrainians can't beat the Russian army, that's not a practical proposition. There has to be a political solution," Hammond told the UK's Sky News. "This man [Putin] has sent troops across an international border and occupied another country's territory in the 21st century acting like some kind of 20th century tyrant." Passports brandished At a gathering of world leaders in Germany on Saturday, Poroshenko brandished passports and military ID cards he said were seized from Russian soldiers deep inside his territory, offering what he said was "evidence" of Russia's presence in the country. "Today a former strategic partner is waging a hidden war against a sovereign state," he said at the Munich Security Conference. Fresh fighting in the former Soviet republic claimed eight civilian lives overnight, separatist authorities said, as Ukraine accused rebels of massing heavy weapons ahead of a new offensive. Merkel set the conference agenda in Munich as she championed the peace plan that she and Hollande took to Putin in Moscow late on Friday. "It is uncertain whether it will lead to success, but from my point of view and that of the French president it is definitely worth trying," she said. German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier told national television the fate of the joint-European push would be known in "two or three days". US Vice President Joe Biden injected a note of caution, saying: "Given Russia's recent history, we need to judge its deeds not its words. Don't tell us, show us, President Putin!" A senior US State Department official said the plan was based on a widely flouted ceasefire deal reached in Minsk in September, but admitted the initiative was still "very much in flux and evolution". Hollande told French TV station France 2 that the proposal includes the creation of a 50km to 70km demilitarised zone based around the current frontline. But this idea appeared to face opposition from the Ukrainian president, who has lost territory to the rebels since the Minsk deal. "There is only one line, and that's the line from the Minsk agreement," Poroshenko said.
ALJAZEERA