Ukraine fighting at lowest level in 18 months

Fighting in eastern Ukraine has fallen to its lowest level since the conflict started, Ukrainian Defence Minister Stepan Poltorak has said.

Poltorak said Ukrainian forces were coming under attack just two to four times a day - the lowest rate in the past year and a half.

The reduction in violence comes a week after the latest ceasefire agreement came into force on 1 September.

Last week's truce aimed to reinforce an agreement struck in Minsk in February.

"We come under two to four attacks a day, this is the lowest number of shootings over the past year-and-a-half," Poltorak told journalists.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov acknowledged fighting had died down but blamed Kiev for not moving forward on other provisions of the agreement, including greater autonomy for the rebel-held eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk.

"A relative stabilisation has indeed taken place from 1 September and there is practically no shelling by the Ukrainian armed forces of civilian populated areas in Donbass," Peskov said.

"But if you look at other conceptual points of the Minsk agreements ... unfortunately you cannot note progress, it is impossible."

The Minsk Group, run by the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and chaired by Russia, France and the US, is meeting on Tuesday to discuss the latest developments.