Germany calls meeting amid renewed tensions between Russia and Ukraine

Senior officials from Germany, Russia, Ukraine and France are meeting in Berlin on Monday and will seek to forge a common solution to renewed tensions between Moscow and Kiev, a German Foreign Ministry spokesman said.

Russia is resisting international calls to release three Ukrainian naval ships that its border patrols had fired on and seized near Crimea at the weekend.

"Today, by chance - it was planned long in advance - political directors are meeting here in Berlin in the Normandy format to discuss the situation in Ukraine and progress in the Minsk process," the ministry spokesman said, with reference to the format under which the four countries meet.

"Of course, this forum will be used to discuss the weekend's events and to find a collective solution," he added.