This handout picture taken and released by the Ukrainian Presidential press-service on December 19, 2014 shows Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko (L) welcoming German Minister for Foreign Affairs Frank-Walter Steinmeier prior their talks in Kiev

 AFP/Kiev

Ukrainian forces lost five soldiers on Friday in a sudden resurgence of clashes ahead of peace talks aimed at ending the separatist conflict and mending East-West ties.

The toll was the highest since Kiev and Russian-backed militias struck a December 9 truce designed to reinforce a tenuous September agreement that was followed by at least 1,300 more deaths.

Last week's breakthrough was meant to set the stage for comprehensive negotiations Ukranian President Petro Poroshenko had hoped to hold on Sunday with the help of European and Russian envoys in the Belarussian capital Minsk.

But a top rebel said the insurgents would only be ready by Monday -- a point underscoring the types of small squabbles that have hindered political progress throughout the eight-month war.

Separatists and the new leaders in Kiev who are trying to fold their ex-Soviet republic into the West were unable on Friday to nail down a final date during a lengthy Skype video call.

"We agreed the general list of issues we need to discuss," rebel negotiator Vladislav Deynego told AFP by telephone. "But we still have no Minsk date."

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande are due this weekend to impress the importance of an immediate meeting during their third joint call to Russia's Vladimir Putin and Poroshenko in the past few days.

 Children in danger

The scale of the fighting has subsided with the onset of winter and heavy snows that make progress across the war-scarred fields and muddied roads all but impossible.

All sides are now busy looking for ways to ensure that millions of civilians who have been unable to flee the artillery shelling and rocket fire make it safely through the winter in apartments with little to no water or heat.

The United Nations believes the daily battles have killed more than 4,700 people and driven nearly a million from their homes.

Its children's fund UNICEF said on Friday that "tens of thousands" of youth still lived in areas engulfed by violence.

"The situation for more than 1.7 million children affected by the conflict remains extremely serious," the UN Children's Rights and Emergency Relief Organisation said.

Any peace agreement is likely to include a requirement for fighters on both sides to let through humanitarian convoys they fear may be used to smuggle in weapons to their adversaries.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said it was essential for the Minsk negotiators to establish a buffer zone that sets the initial boundaries of areas overseen by the rebels within a unified Ukraine.

Steinmeier added after talks in Kiev with Poroshenko and Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk that the sides must also agree to swap their remaining prisoners and "resolve humanitarian relief issues".

 Russia warns Obama

Poroshenko had been expected to urge Steinmeier to hold strong on sanctions against Russia that some EU member nations think should be gradually eased in the coming months.

EU leaders on Thursday slapped sanctions against Moscow-administered Crimea they had approved at an earlier meeting but took no additional steps against Russia itself.

The White House on Thursday said US President Barack Obama also did not intend to impose new punitive measures on Russia despite signing an act approved by Congress that allows him to do so at any point.

Obama further stressed that Washington -- like Brussels -- was ready to lift its restrictions if Russia de-escalated the conflict by paying respect to "Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity".

But Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov still warned the White House that legislation "threatening new sanctions against Russia could undermine the possibility of normal cooperation between our countries for a long time."

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