President Vladimir Putin will travel to Minsk for a Ukraine peace summit today along with the leaders of Ukraine, France and Germany, the Kremlin said.
"Russian President Vladimir Putin today is travelling to Minsk where he will participate" in the four-way talks, the Kremlin said in a statement.
The summit is aimed at drawing up a peace plan to halt 10 months of bloodshed in eastern Ukraine, with some calls for the West to arm Kiev's forces to fight the pro-Russian rebels.
Moscow is pushing for the separatist-held territories to be granted a large degree of autonomy, while Ukraine is seeking to restore its control over 400 kilometres of its border with Russia.
Putin will be joining Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande.
