Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday that Washington should use its influence in Kiev to push for peace in eastern Ukraine.
"The most important thing is the need to talk sense into the party of war in Kiev, and in large part only the United States can do this," Lavrov told reporters.
"It is very important for it to use its influence as far as possible to send the necessary signals in favour of switching from trying to resolve the situation by military means, in favor of a political process."
Russian FM Lavrov also said Ukrainian moves to seek NATO membership were aimed at undermining efforts to end the war in the east of the country.
Lavrov said last week's move by Kiev came shortly after a meeting of the Russian and Ukrainian leaders to seek to defuse the crisis.
"So the party of peace was trying, and is still trying, to advance a negotiated political settlement of all the fundamental questions Ukrainians face, and in Kiev, the party of war is taking steps clearly aimed at undermining these efforts," he told a news conference.
Meanwhile, Italian Foreign Minister Federica Mogherini told the European Parliament that European Union governments will take a decision on a package of new sanctions against Russia by Friday.
"On Monday, yesterday, the Coreper (EU ambassadors) met, the Commission is going to present the proposal, finalized proposal of the package by tomorrow, and the decision will be taken by Friday," Mogherini said.
She added the Commission was working on a strengthened package of sanctions against Russia over its military invasion of Ukraine in four sectors, which include defense, dual use goods and finance.
Earlier, a top Kremlin security adviser said threats to Russia from the situation in Ukraine and NATO enlargement in eastern Europe would be key factors as Moscow reviews its military strategy.
"The fact that the military infrastructure of NATO member states is getting closer to our borders, including via enlargement, will preserve its place as one of the external threats for the Russian Federation," Mikhail Popov, the deputy head of the Kremlin advisory security council, said in an interview with RIA.
He named U.S. missile defense plans and the situation in Ukraine as other dangers to Russia's security.
PEOPLE DISPLACED IN UKRAINE
More than one million people have been displaced by the conflict in Ukraine, including 814,000 Ukrainians now in Russia with various forms of status, the UNHCR United Nations refugee agency said on Tuesday.
Numbers displaced inside Ukraine by the fighting have nearly doubled in the past there weeks to at least 260,000 and more are fleeing, it earlier told a Geneva news briefing.
"It's safe to say you have over a million people now displaced as a result of the conflict, internally and externally together," Vincent Cochetel, director of the UNHCR's bureau for Europe, later told reporters. "I mean 260,000 in Ukraine, it's a low estimate, 814,000 in Russia, then you add the rest ... Belarus, Moldova, European Union."
SERVICE PERSONNEL KILLED
Fifteen more Ukrainian service personnel have been killed in the past 24 hours in fighting with pro-Russian separatists backed by Russian troops, a Ukrainian military spokesman said on Tuesday.
U.N. agencies say about 2,600 people have died in the conflict, around 800 of them members of Ukraine's forces, Kiev says.
President Petro Poroshenko on Monday that the situation in the five-month war against separatists had dramatically worsened since Russian forces joined fighting on behalf of the separatists.
He said Russia was now carrying out "open and undisguised aggression" against Ukraine. Russia denies its troops are involved.
REUTERS