FRENCH President Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel flew to Kiev yesterday with a peace proposal which they will deliver to Moscow today.

“It will not be said that France and Germany together have not tried everything, undertaken everything, to preserve the peace,” said President Hollande, who stressed that their proposal was “based on the territorial integrity of Ukraine.”

A senior French government official said that the two leaders had decided on their course of action on Wednesday night and had not consulted US officials about the plan.

Ms Merkel’s spokesman Steffen Siebert said that“given the escalation of violence in the past days, the chancellor and President Hollande are intensifying their months-long efforts for a peaceful settlement of the conflict.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said that the three leaders would discuss “what the three nations can do to help put a quick end to a civil war in south-eastern Ukraine, which has exacerbated in recent days with mounting casualties.”

US Secretary of State John Kerry also arrived in Kiev yesterday to show support for its government, along with $16.4 million (£10.72m) in humanitarian aid.

The Obama administration is currently weighing up whether to send arms to Kiev to help it crush the anti-fascist resistance in the east of the country.

The president has previously opposed sending weapons to Ukraine but this may be about to change, although Germany and other European nations remain fiercely opposed.

Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier reiterated that stance yesterday, saying that it would not improve the situation if “we now bring more weapons to the region.”

Mr Hollande also stressed France’s opposition to Ukraine joining Nato, noting the disquiet that would be felt in Moscow by this development.

“We have to settle this problem among Europeans. We are on the same continent,” he said.

EU foreign ministers will meet on Monday to discuss strengthening sanctions against Russia for its alleged role in Ukraine.

Nato secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg said in Brussels that member-state defence ministers would agree to upping the size of the cold war alliance’s response force from 13,000 to 30,000 in reaction to Russian actions in Ukraine.