ANKARA 

Russia has denied agreeing to the deployment of peacekeepers in the Donbass region in Ukraine, as ceasefire breaches between separatists and Kiev troops continue in the restive east.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed on Friday a Ukrainian report of the content of phone calls between Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, French President Francois Hollande, German President Angela Merkel and Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday, in which the peacekeeping initiative was discussed.

Kiev said earlier that Putin had agreed to the idea of sending a peace force to the Donbass region, which includes the self-styled people's republics of Donetsk and Luhansk.

Peskov said: "This isn't true.

"It is not us, but the fighting sides - the Kiev and Donbass administrations - which should decide on the matter of stationing peacekeeping troops."

Russia has supported separatists in eastern Ukraine since the armed conflict began in early 2014 and in March annexed the Crimean peninsula.

Russia has faced economic and political sanctions from the West in response.

Ukraine, Russia, France and Germany agreed in September last year to halt the armed conflict in the Donbass region between Kiev and Donetsk and Luhansk separatists.

After the ceasefire failed to hold, the parties sought to revive the protocol with a new agreement on March 12, 2015.

The second agreement remains in place but is breached by sporadic fighting.