The Foreign Ministers of four countries have agreed on measures which could lead to a bilateral ceasefire in the east and south of Ukraine.

Their meeting came after a ten-day truce ended late on Monday, with both Ukrainian authorities and pro-Russian rebels in Donetsk and Luhansk claiming the other side had violated it many times.

Three-way talks including Donbass activists and officials from governments in Kiev and Moscow are due to be held by July 5, German Foreign Minister Frank Walter Steinmeier was quoted by Der Spiegel as saying.

His Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov says a meeting of the "Contact Group", in which the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) also takes part, could help all sides to "agree on conditions for truce that would satisfy" them.

Recently-appointed Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin called for the peace plan of President Petro Poroshenko to be observed if the situation is to deescalate, the BBC reports.

Talks were initiated by Germany following a new outbreak of violence which began in eastern Ukraine after the latest ceasefire ended.

On Wednesday pro-Russian rebels argued nine people died in the village of Luhanska after a raid of the Ukrainian army, but the information is yet to be verified.

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