New Ukraine-Russia talks this week, Macron warns against 'escalation'

Russian and Ukrainian negotiators are to sit down for a fresh round of talks this week in an attempt to end the war in Ukraine that the UN estimates has killed at least 1,100 civilians and sent more than 3.8 million fleeing to other countries.

Kyiv said the negotiations would start Monday in Turkey, while Russia's lead negotiator said they would begin on Tuesday without confirming the location.

The prospect of fresh talks comes after the Russian army said last week that it would focus on eastern Ukraine, which some interpreted as a scaling back of Russian objections, although US President Joe Biden cast doubt on a strategy change.

France's President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday warned against an escalation "in words and action", after Biden on Saturday branded Russian President Vladimir Putin a "butcher" who "cannot remain in power".

The Kremlin reacted in fury to Biden's comments, saying it narrowed the window for bilateral relations, with the West and Moscow already at loggerheads over crushing sanctions imposed against Russia for invading Ukraine on February 24.

Rounds of diplomatic efforts and the sanctions have so far failed to get Putin to halt his war, despite the Russians appearing to run into tactical and logistical problems.

Ukraine's intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov said Putin might be considering a Korean scenario, by seeking to "impose a separation line between the occupied and unoccupied regions of our country".

"After a failure to capture Kyiv and remove Ukraine's government, Putin is changing his main operational directions. These are south and east," he wrote on Facebook.

"In fact, it will be an attempt to set up South and North Koreans in Ukraine," Budanov added.

Russia may try to establish a quasi-state of occupied zones with its own currency, he assessed, but he vowed that Ukrainian counter-offensive will foil those plans.