Ukraine held back to see whether a Russian-backed truce would hold through the day before beginning its own withdrawal of forces from the frontline stretching across the war-torn country's separatist east.

The military reported suffering no casualties but more than a dozen overnight attacks overnight by pro-Russian insurgents who refuse to accept the new Kiev leaders' decision to seek a closer alliance with the West.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov thinks relations between Moscow and Washington need a new "reset", he says in an interview to be aired Sunday, blaming the freeze on the United States.

"Now what's needed is something that the Americans will call a 'reset'," Lavrov told Russia's Channel 5 television, according to a transcript published on the foreign ministry's website.

Former Norwegian premier Jens Stoltenberg will on Wednesday take charge of a revitalized NATO which less than a year ago looked like a Cold War dinosaur in a fast-changing world.

The alliance has a new-found sense of purpose thanks to the Ukraine crisis but Stoltenberg will be aware that it must also face up to many other and longer-term challenges, analysts said.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Saturday accused the United States of resorting to "military interference" to defend its interests, in a veiled reference to the air campaign in Syria.

"Washington has openly declared its right to unilateral use of force anywhere to uphold its own interests," Lavrov told the U.N. General Assembly.

War-torn Ukraine on Saturday distanced itself from an EU-brokered agreement with Russia that would have restored its gas supplies during winter and helped rebuild trust between the neighboring foes.

The European Union's energy commissioner emerged from hours of acrimonious negotiations in Berlin on Friday to pronounce the three month dispute on the verge of being resolved.

Russia believes U.S.-led air strikes against jihadists in Syria should be carried out in coordination with Syrian authorities and in accordance with international law, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Friday.

Lavrov was speaking after the United States this week extended an air assault against the Islamic State (IS) group in Iraq to Syria with the support of five Arab countries.

Ukraine's president may have ordered the closure of his nation's border with Russia but, when asked about it, the rebel commander of this crossing point just smiles and points to the snaking queue of cars traversing the international line.

"As you can see, it is very much open," the border post commander at Uspenka who identifies himself by his nickname "Arshi" says.

Russia is ready to resume gas deliveries to Ukraine if Kiev pays its energy giant Gazprom back debts worth $3.1 billion (2.4 billion euros) by late December, European Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger said Friday.

According to the interim agreement, which has to be approved by the governments in Moscow and Kiev, Gazprom is ready to deliver at least five billion cubic meters of gas in the coming months, Oettinger said after he met with both energy ministers in Berlin.

Forensic experts have identified 251 of the 298 passengers and crew killed on downed Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, after 26 people were named this week, Dutch authorities said on Friday.

"Among the 26 victims, 19 were Dutch and seven were of other nationalities," the justice ministry said in a statement, adding that those nationalities would not be released at the request of their embassies.

Russian lawmakers on Friday passed without debate a law limiting foreign ownership of media to 20 percent, threatening some of the country's most respected independent media.

The Duma lower house of parliament rushed through the bill in both the second and third readings, with just two lawmakers voting against.