article: Now key players are meeting here for what has been widely called "one of the last chances" to stop a widening trail of destruction and death, which threaten the territorial integrity of Ukraine. The run-up to another Minsk meeting has been marked by an East-West war of words and an intensifying war on the ground. Pro-Russian separatists have been pushing deeper into government-held ground in eastern Ukraine to try to secure a stronger foothold in advance of any possible ceasefire. When leaders of France, Germany, Russia and Ukraine sit down in the Belarusian capital, they are hoping to build on the first Minsk protocol agreed last September - even if it failed to force either side to cease fire or help Ukraine re-establish control of its territory. But much more than the future of Ukraine is at risk in this high stakes diplomacy. "Europe is heavily engaged in this," former Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt told me during last weekend's Munich Security Forum. "If this is tolerated here, it opens up a Pandora's box - be that in the Balkans, in Central Asia, or somewhere else in the Russian periphery that would even more fundamentally endanger Europe's security." But Russia also sees, in the tensions over Ukraine, a threat to its strategic core. For Moscow, Europe's intervention amounts to unwarranted aggression in its backyard. On the brink of an even greater escalation in the worst East-West crisis since the Cold War, Western leaders are deploying all means and measures in their diplomats' toolkit. American officials warn they are weighing up the despatch of lethal "defensive weapons" to help Ukrainian troops defend themselves against pro-Russian forces. The EU has put on hold for a week a raft of newly approved sanctions against Russia and the rebels, including asset freezes and visa bans, to give this last ditch effort a "maximum chance of success". Outlines of a possible agreement include a 30 to 45 mile demilitarised zone between Ukrainian-controlled areas and what are now self-proclaimed People's Republics in Donetsk and Luhansk. But the ceasefire line drawn last September no longer corresponds to the new map carved in the bloody battles of recent months. Pro-Russian rebels are defiantly digging in on the ground. Vladimir Putin has also staked out a similar position during the flurry of negotiations in recent days including five hours of talks on Friday when Germany's Angela Merkel and France's Francois Hollande suddenly flew to Moscow to meet him. At the Munich Forum, some European officials spoke of "Minsk plus" with palpable unease. "This is, of course, a very tricky question," Norway's Foreign Minister Borge Brende explained to me. "Since 5 September there has been an escalation and we have to be realistic and go a bit further to accommodate Russian and pro-Russian supporters." Despite a mantra repeated at every turn that "Europe's borders are inviolate," many observers expect the very best that can be achieved is a "freezing" of current hostilities. Even that will be difficult. Details of a draft Minsk deal include the withdrawal of military equipment and illegal armed
summary: It is five months since Minsk gave its name to a peace deal for Ukraine.