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Following new fatal attacks in eastern Ukraine, EU foreign affairs representative Josep Borrell has assured Ukraine of support in the conflict with the pro-Russian rebels.
The Russian military activities around Ukraine are being followed with great concern, wrote Borrell late on Sunday evening after a phone call with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitri Kuleba.
Russia warned against an escalation of the situation.
"All of this is a bitter consequence of the unresolved situation, more than that, a consequence of the increased tension on the dividing line (front)," said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov in Moscow on Monday, according to the Interfax agency.
The Kremlin also commented on reports of the death of a five-year-old boy in Donbass, for which the pro-Russian separatists blamed Ukrainian forces over the weekend.
"Every time a person is killed, especially if it's a child, it's a tragedy," said Peskov.
The Ukrainian army had denied allegations of having dropped an explosive device with a drone.
Ukrainian media later reported that the boy was killed in a mine.
The place Olexandriwske is about 14 kilometers from the front.
Heavy fighting took place in the area in 2015.
Germany and France concerned about ceasefire violations
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A few days ago, a fighter was also killed in the Luhansk separatist area.
On Sunday, a civilian is said to have been injured by a land mine near Mykolaivka on the Siwerskyi Donets river.
On the Ukrainian side, according to the army in the Donetsk region, a soldier was killed by an explosive device near the Shumy settlement.
Before that, two other soldiers had been informed of the wounding.
Germany and France, who are trying to find a solution to the Ukraine conflict in the Normandy format, expressed themselves "concerned about the increasing number of ceasefire violations" after the situation had stabilized in the meantime.
"We are observing the situation, especially the movements of Russian troops, very carefully and are calling on the parties to restraint and immediate de-escalation," said a joint statement by the Foreign Office and the French Foreign Ministry.
"The noticeable increase in fake news and disinformation campaigns on social media in recent days increases the risk of dangerous misunderstandings, which makes transparency and unhindered access for OSCE observers all the more important," Foreign Minister Heiko Maas (SPD) told the Süddeutsche Zeitung. .
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Margarita Simonjan, editor-in-chief of the Russian foreign television broadcaster RT, repeated her call for Russia to incorporate the eastern Ukrainian territories over the weekend.
"Mother Russia, bring the Donbass home," said Simonyan, who is criticized as a Kremlin-loyal propagandist, on the NTW TV station.
Despite international protests, Russia is granting citizens of the eastern Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Luhansk Russian citizenship.
Around 400,000 Russian passports are said to have been issued since June 2019.
Kiev had repeatedly expressed concern that a Russian attack on Donbass could take place under the pretext of protecting Russian citizens.
The Ukrainian chief of staff, Ruslan Khomchak, declared in parliament in Kiev a week ago that Russia had massively concentrated its troops on the border with Ukraine.
The Kremlin once again accused the neighboring country of failing to implement the 2015 Minsk Peace Agreement.
Over 13,000 people have been killed since rebels control Donetsk and Luhansk
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Rebels have been controlling parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions along the Russian border for almost seven years.
According to UN estimates, more than 13,000 people have been killed since then.
Despite the agreed ceasefire, at least 21 soldiers have been killed on the government side since the beginning of the year.
According to the separatists, around 23 people were killed during the same period.
New tensions in eastern Ukraine had recently sparked international concern.
However, according to observers from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), the number of violations of the ceasefire is still well below the level of the previous year.