Paris/Kiev: The leaders of Germany and France launched a new diplomatic initiative over Ukraine on Thursday, announcing they would fly together to Kiev and Moscow with a proposal to resolve the conflict that could be ‘acceptable to all’.

The coordinated trip by Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Francois Hollande comes as rebels steadily advance on a railway hub held by Ukrainian troops after launching an offensive that scuppered a five-month-old ceasefire.

Washington has begun openly talking of arming Ukraine for the first time. US Secretary of State John Kerry also flew to Kiev on Thursday, although he had no plans to go to Moscow. His likely cabinet colleague, defence secretary nominee Ashton Carter, told lawmakers on Wednesday that he favoured arming Ukraine’s forces.

Peace talks collapsed on Saturday in Belarus, EU leaders are expected to consider punishing new economic sanctions against Moscow next week, and Germany hosts world leaders at a security conference over the weekend at which Ukraine is expected to be the main subject.

‘Together with Angela Merkel we have decided to take a new initiative,’ Hollande told a news conference. ‘We will make a new proposal to solve the conflict which will be based on Ukraine’s territorial integrity.’

He and Merkel would meet President Petro Poroshenko in Kiev on Thursday and Russia’s Vladimir Putin in Moscow the following day.

‘For several days Angela Merkel and I have worked on a text ... a text that can be acceptable to all,’ Hollande said.

He warned about risks of escalation in Ukraine: ‘Now we are in a war, and in a war that could be a total war.’

Merkel’s spokesman Steffen Seibert said in a statement: ‘In view of the escalating violence in recent days, the chancellor and President Hollande are intensifying their efforts, which have been going on for months, for a peaceful settlement to the conflict in eastern Ukraine.’