Russian Economy Minister Alexei Ulyukayev said on Friday he hoped Western sanctions on Moscow could soon be lifted following a ceasefire agreement reached in the Belarussian capital Minsk.
"I am deeply convinced that there are opportunities to remove these problems. I think all sides, especially businesses, are tired of this (sanctions) regime," Ulyukayev was quoted as telling reporters.
The Kremlin's spokesman said on Friday the leaders of Russia, Ukraine, Germany and France are in touch over the Ukraine crisis and that he expected a phone conversation to be agreed upon in the coming days, RIA news agency reported.
Dmitry Peskov also said Moscow expected all points of a ceasefire deal agreed in Minsk on Thursday to be implemented.
On the fate of detained Ukrainian pilot Nadezhda Savchenko, Peskov said Russia had not made any promises at the talks on her possible release as Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said.
Savchenko's case would be decided by a Russian court, Peskov said.
On the field:
Two civilians were killed and six injured on Friday morning by rebel shelling of the town of Shchastya, near Luhansk city in east Ukraine, the head of the Kiev-controlled regional administration said.
"The shell fell on a cafe where there were lots of people," Hennadiy Moskal said in an online statement, adding that other shells had struck elsewhere in the town.
"The town's heating system is broken, power lines are damaged as well as the water supply ...So this is how a comprehensive ceasefire is prepared for."
Earlier, a Kiev military spokesman said eight Ukrainian service personnel have been killed and 34 wounded in fighting against separatists in eastern Ukraine in the past 24 hours, despite a four-power peace deal worked out in Belarus.
"In the Donbass (eastern Ukraine), this night was not a calm one. The enemy shelled positions of the 'anti-terrorist operation' forces with the same intensity as before," a statement by the military said.
Fighting had been particularly intense around Debaltseve, a key railway junction linking the two main rebel areas, where separatists had used rockets and artillery to attack government forces holding the town, the statement said.
"Following military action and shelling ... Ukraine lost eight service personnel and 34 others were wounded," military spokesman Vladyslav Seleznyov said.
REUTERS
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