Kazakhstan will not accept a single currency in a trade bloc championed by Moscow, a top official said on Wednesday, rejecting a proposal from Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The Russian leader has called for a common currency to be created in the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU), a four-country trade grouping consisting of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia.

The United States welcomed Tuesday news that Poland is planning to buy the U.S.-made Patriot missile system in an unprecedented revamp of its military in a deal worth up to $5 billion.

"Poland is a stalwart NATO ally, and its defense modernization program... directly fortifies the military strength of the alliance," State Department acting spokeswoman Marie Harf said in a statement.

A group of supporters of Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday launched a satirical weekly with anti-Western cartoons and verses, calling it an answer to France's "Charlie Hebdo" magazine.

Activists from the Anti-Maidan movement, which organizes rallies and concerts in support of the Kremlin's actions in Ukraine, gave out the first issue on a central pedestrian street.

The EU announced Tuesday payment of 250 million euros ($267 million) in aid loans to Ukraine, bringing the total to 1.6 billion euros to support the economy battered by a war against pro-Russian rebels in the east.

The European Union promised Ukraine political and economic support in exchange for reforms as part of an Association Accord sealed last year which sparked the conflict and was bitterly opposed by Russia.

A Ukrainian soldier was killed on the frontline in fighting with pro-Russian separatists in the east, the army said Tuesday, its first fatality in nearly a week as shelling rumbles on despite a ceasefire deal.

"In the past 24 hours, one Ukrainian soldier was killed and another one wounded" in the village of Pisky near the airport of the key separatist-held city of Donetsk, army spokesman Andriy Lysenko told a news conference around 1000 GMT.

Raging wildfires in Siberia in recent weeks killed 34 people, the emergencies minister said Tuesday in a new toll as President Vladimir Putin visited the stricken region.

"To date, 34 people have died in southern Siberia," Emergencies Minister Vladimir Puchkov told Putin in a meeting to address the disaster. Another 77 were hospitalized, some with serious burns.

Argentine President Cristina Kirchner will visit Russia's Vladimir Putin Wednesday and Thursday to follow up on nuclear and trade deals the countries signed last year and cultivate a budding relationship.

Putin extended the invitation during a stop last July in Buenos Aires, where Russian and Argentine officials signed a raft of deals on trade, military cooperation, communications and energy projects.

U.S. paratroopers launched a training mission Monday for Ukrainian government forces who will fight pro-Russian separatists in the east, angering Moscow as the deadly conflict rumbles on.

President Petro Poroshenko welcomed troops from the U.S. 173rd Airborne Brigade for Operation Fearless Guardian in a rain-soaked ceremony at a military base in Yavoriv, western Ukraine.

The OSCE chief said Monday a truce was holding in a key village in eastern Ukraine and urged rival sides to "embrace a good chance for peace" in the war-torn region.

"The news this morning is that our people, our monitors have brokered a truce in Shyrokyne, down near Mariupol," OSCE secretary general Lamberto Zannier said.

Norway said Sunday it was angry that Russia's deputy prime minister visited its Arctic Svalbard archipelago this weekend even though he is banned from Norwegian territory over Russia's role in the Ukraine conflict.

"We are not too happy about it," Norwegian foreign ministry spokesman Rune Bjastad told AFP.