Russia has not agreed to train troops in Iraq as proposed by United States Secretary of State John Kerry, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in a televised interview Saturday.

"There was no agreement that we will send our instructors to train the army in Iraq," Lavrov told Rossiya-1 television.

NATO head Jens Stoltenberg called on Russia Friday to withdraw its troops from Ukraine as the country prepares for key national elections which pro-Moscow rebels plan to prevent in areas they control.

Stoltenberg, who took office last month with the crisis top of his agenda, said Russia's continued presence and support for the rebels violated international law, as well as  Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel urged Russian President Vladimir Putin in a telephone call Friday to throw his weight behind a quick resolution of an ongoing gas dispute with Ukraine as winter looms.

In the latest talks between the two leaders on the crisis in Ukraine, Merkel also underlined that upcoming elections in areas of eastern Ukraine controlled by Russian-backed separatists must respect national law.

The conflict in Ukraine has driven more than 824,000 people from their homes, the U.N. refugee agency said on Friday, warning that it was having to scramble aid to offset the impact of winter.

At least 430,000 people had been displaced within Ukraine as of Thursday, UNHCR said, 170,000 more than at the start of September.

Sweden called off a massive hunt Friday for at least one mystery foreign submarine in its waters that had worrying echoes of Cold War stand-offs, after calling the incursion "unacceptable".

The search, which stirred up memories of cat-and-mouse games with suspected Soviet submarines along Sweden's long, rugged coastline before fall of the Berlin Wall, had involved battleships, minesweepers and helicopters as well as more than 200 troops.

Russia's ruble slumped to a new all-time low on Friday as the economic fall-out from the Ukraine crisis and lower oil prices caused the finance minister to call for a "back-up" 2015-2017 budget.

For the first time it took more than 53 rubles to buy one euro, and the rate against the dollar topped 41.92 with speculation swirling that Standard and Poor's could cut its rating for Russia to a "speculative" level.

While much of Ukraine is abuzz with campaigning for Sunday's parliamentary poll Sunday, refugees who have fled fighting in the east for Russia say they want nothing to do with the vote.

"Ukrainian elections? What elections?" scoffed Pavel, 46, one of 300 Ukrainians holed up at a Russian holiday camp some 40 kilometers (25 miles) from the border near the town of Taganrog.

Russia has detained four Moscow airport employees over a plane crash which killed the head of French oil giant Total, whose private jet hit a snowplough on takeoff, investigators said Thursday.

Those detained include the air traffic controller in charge of directing the doomed plane at Vnukovo airport, her supervisor, the head of air traffic controllers and the chief of runway cleaning, Russia's investigative committee said in a statement. 

Several countries are currently boosting their arms aid and delivery to the Lebanese army to fortify its capabilities to confront jihadists, who are entrenched on the outskirts of the northeastern border town of Arsal on the porous Syrian-Lebanese border.

A high-ranking military source denied in comments published in al-Joumhouria newspaper on Thursday that Army General Jean Qahwaji discussed with U.S. officials during a recent visit to Washington an Iranian grant to the military.

Sweden said Wednesday it was pulling back part of its navy which has been searching for a suspected Russian submarine off the coast of Stockholm for nearly a week with no vessel found.

Battleships, minesweepers, helicopters and more than 200 troops have scoured an area about 30 to 60 kilometers (20 to 40 miles) from the Swedish capital since Friday following reports of a "man-made object" in the water.