French President Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel will come up with a new initiative on settling the conflict in eastern Ukraine during their upcoming visits to Kyiv and Moscow.

"Angela Merkel and I have decided to propose a new initiative. We will make a new proposal on settling the conflict [in Ukraine], which would be based on the principle of this country's territorial integrity," Hollande said at the Elysee Palace on Thursday.

Hollande said Merkel and he planned to meet with the Ukrainian and Russian leaders to discuss the matter while they visit Kyiv and Moscow.

"We will discuss it [the initiative] with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko today and with the Russian president in Moscow tomorrow," he said.

The French and German leaders are planning "not only to discuss [the conflict] but also find a text that would be acceptable to all parties," he said.

"War is going on in Ukraine. Heavy weapons are being used, and civilians are dying every day," Hollande told journalists.

He also pointed out that the sanctions imposed by the West on Russia "have not stopped the acts of violence" in eastern Ukraine.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is currently visiting Kyiv to discuss the situation in the eastern part of the country with the Ukrainian leadership.

The French Embassy to Ukraine told Interfax that Hollande and Merkel were expected to come to Kyiv at about 5:00 p.m. local time on Thursday.

Ukrainian deputy presidential chief of staff Valeriy Chaly said in commenting on the French and German leaders' meetings in Kyiv: "The foundation of the negotiations is support for Ukraine, the fulfillment of the Minsk agreements, and a search for efficient mechanisms for their implementation by all parties."

"We will also talk about the negotiating formats in the run up to [the Munich Security Conference]. We are preparing the negotiations with cautious optimism," Chaly said on Facebook.