Ukraine conflict: Crucial summit goes through the night.

The Russian and Ukrainian presidents have been meeting all night in Belarus to try to secure a peace deal.

Few details have emerged but a Ukrainian presidential aide, Valeriy Chaly, posted on Facebook that a battle of nerves was underway, and they had several more hours of work to do.Before the talks began, the Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said achieving a ceasefire was essential.Thousands of people have been killed in the fighting in the east of Ukraine.German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande are leading the peace initiative in Minsk.There was little warmth as Russian President Vladimir Putin shook hands with Ukrainian leader Petro Poroshenko.Russia has been accused of arming and reinforcing pro-Russian rebels in east Ukraine - a claim it denies.The talks are set to focus on securing a ceasefire, withdrawal of heavy weapons and creating a demilitarised zone.

On the ground in eastern Ukraine's Donetsk and Luhansk regions, Wednesday saw new attacks:

• Heavy shelling was reported by bloggers in the rebel-held city of Luhansk; a freelance reporter on the ground, Pierre Sautreuil,reported (in French) that a rebel military base seemed to be the target of one bombardment in the south-east of the city

• At least one person died when a hospital was shelled in the rebel-held city of Donetsk, bringing the day's toll from shelling there to at least six.

• Rebel forces near the strategically important town of Debaltseve bombarded government forces with mortars a day after the government reported the deaths of 19 soldiers in the area

The BBC's Ian Pannell: "If peace talks fail again, the war... risks spiralling even further out of control"While the Ukrainian government is seeking a demarcation line based on the failed ceasefire agreed on 5 September in Belarus last year, the rebels want a new truce to reflect the gains they have made in recent weeks, the BBC's James Reynolds reports from Donetsk.More than 5,400 people have died since the conflict began, and there has been a dramatic rise in casualties in recent days, with 263 civilians killed in populated areas between 31 January and 5 February.

The images tell you an awful lot. The Ukrainian and Russian presidents barely looked at each other when they were forced to shake hands. At a family photo of the leaders, not a single person was smiling. There was even an image of Vladimir Putin inside the negotiations snapping a pencil in two.

In the end, what it will come down to is what the Ukrainian President, Petro Poroshenko, is willing to accept in terms of a compromise and what Russia is willing to offer.In broad terms what Ukraine, backed by the West, wants is to restore Ukraine's territorial integrity, including control of the border with Russia. But what the separatists in eastern Ukraine, backed by Russia, want is to remain in charge of the territory that is now under their control.

The best that anyone says can be achieved is a freezing of the conflict.

News Curtesy: www.bbc.com