AKIPRESS.COM - Angela Merkel is to meet President Barack Obama in Washington on Monday in a bid to secure a diplomatic solution to the escalating Ukraine crisis amid calls for the US administration to arm Kiev.

The German chancellor’s visit comes after the latest round of talks between France, Germany, Ukraine and Russia failed to result in a peace accord at the weekend.

In a four-way phone call on Sunday, Mr Putin and Ms Merkel, together with French President François Hollande and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, agreed to meet on Wednesday in the Belarusian capital of Minsk. Talks have taken on new urgency following the collapse of September’s ceasefire agreement as Russian-backed rebels seize government-controlled areas in eastern Ukraine.