Ukraine's prime minister said on Wednesday that Europe would never again have a "Berlin Wall" and that his country wanted to become European, ahead of talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Arseniy Yatsenyuk said the Ukrainian people wanted a "European perspective" for the strife-torn former Soviet republic, which is facing an armed secessionist movement in parts of the east.

The German government called on Russia Wednesday to step up its border controls to prevent pro-Russian separatists or weapons going into crisis-hit Ukraine.

Berlin expects that Moscow "along its border with Ukraine prevents separatists ready for violence from infiltrating, or that large quantities of weapons are transported", spokesman Steffen Seibert told reporters.

Germany's finance minister on Tuesday described France's far-right National Front (FN), which came out on top in France's weekend vote for a new European Parliament, as a "fascist" party.

Wolfgang Schaeuble told a forum on Europe that the outcome in Europe's second biggest economy was a vote "not for a right-wing party but for a fascist party".

The leader of Germany's Jewish community Monday denounced gains made by far-right parties in EU-wide elections and urged democratic forces to block their path and defend European values.

Dieter Graumann, the president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, said the extremist parties performed "shockingly well", as feared, in Sunday's European parliamentary vote.

Germany's Angela Merkel said Monday the rise of populist parties in European Parliament elections was "remarkable and regrettable" and the answer was to push European competitiveness, jobs and growth.

After her Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its Bavarian sister party won the German vote on Sunday, the chancellor praised the "solid result" of the conservatives in her country and Europe-wide.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives came out ahead in European Parliament elections, official results showed Monday, but a neo-Nazi party also won a seat in Brussels, echoing far-right gains elsewhere.

Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU) and their Bavarian sister party the CSU -- a team that last September celebrated a landslide win at the national level -- between them secured 35.3 percent of votes cast.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Saturday wrapped up the European election campaign for her conservative CDU party, calling the EU a "peace project" that was especially relevant during the crisis in Ukraine.

"Our task today is to again drive forward the peace project and -- especially in view of Ukraine -- to again and again talk to Russia, to again extend our hand, even if we don't always agree with everything" it does, she said.

Turkish Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan roused cheering supporters Saturday at a speech in Germany, the country with the most overseas Turks, shrugging off street protests there labeling him a "dictator".

Erdogan is expected to run for Turkey's presidency in August, and Germany -- with a Turkish community of three million, half of them eligible voters -- would be a strong constituency for the controversial leader.

Western powers on Friday appealed for a peaceful transition in Libya, voicing alarm over the chaos and violence a month before elections.

Britain, France and the United States -- the three powers who led the 2011 attacks that ousted strongman Moammar Gadhafi -- urged a "peaceful and democratic" transition in a joint statement also signed by Germany, Italy and the European Union.

At least five people were killed Friday in fighting near Ukraine's eastern hub of Donetsk two days before a presidential election undermined by an upsurge in attacks by pro-Russian separatists.

The latest bloodshed on the heels of the deaths of 18 soldiers Thursday in the eastern rustbelt near Russia underscores the trouble the interim leaders have in making sure they can pull off a safe and well-attended vote Sunday.