KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — Separatist rebels have not handed back border posts, laid down their weapons or fulfilled other conditions, Ukraine's president said Monday in a phone call with the leaders of Russia, Germany and France.
The call between President Petro Poroshenko, Russia's Vladimir Putin, Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel and France's Francois Hollande took place before a deadline expired for Ukraine's shaky, unilateral cease-fire.
Poroshenko had already extended the cease-fire from seven days to 10 as part of a plan to end the conflict that has killed more than 400 people since April. The cease-fire has been continuously broken, however, and the pro-Russia rebels have not disarmed as Poroshenko has demanded.
As the deadline passed, there was no immediate action by the president to extend the cease-fire.
European leaders have urged Russia to use its influence with the rebels to de-escalate the conflict and warned that they could impose another round of economic sanctions against Russia if conditions for continuing the cease-fire were not met.
Those included a demand that the separatists hand back three checkpoints they seized on the border with Russia.
French officials said Monday's phone call touched on establishing a full cease-fire by both sides, having international monitors on the border between Russia and Ukraine, freeing prisoners and holding substantial talks with the rebels.
Rebel leader Alexander Borodai on Monday welcomed having observers monitor the situation anywhere in the separatist region but rejected the demand to hand back the checkpoints.
Stymied by the rebels' refusal, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Putin suggested to Poroshenko that both Ukrainian monitors and observers from the Organization for the Security and Cooperation in Europe deploy to checkpoints on the Russian side of the border to ensure "they aren't used for illegal means."
"We expect that direct and detailed consultations between Russian and Ukrainian border guards will start shortly to agree on details of the monitors' presence," Lavrov said in televised remarks.
A Kremlin statement said foreign ministers from the four countries would quickly hold four-way talks to discuss the issues raised by the leaders — a distinct cold shoulder to further efforts from the United States or the full European Union to be involved in Ukraine's protracted crisis.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the U.S. welcomes encouraging words from Putin but is looking for the Russian leader to take "tangible actions" rather than just issue positive sentiments to avoid additional sanctions.
"We are still in a situation where those actions do not indicate a seriousness of purpose when it comes to deescalating the situation in Ukraine," Earnest said. "That's what leaves Russia at risk of further (sanctions)."
Sporadic fighting flared early Monday despite the cease-fire. Shelling killed at least two people and ruined several apartments in the rebel-held city of Slovyansk.
Poroshenko says his unilateral cease-fire is a first step to give rebels a chance to lay down their arms. Further steps would include an amnesty for separatists who have not committed serious crimes, early local elections and changes in the constitution to decentralize power to Ukraine's regions.
But in Slovyansk, shooting kept up through the night, growing heavy at times Monday morning. Some of the shelling appeared to be directed at rebel front-line positions but other shells landed in a residential neighborhood, destroying or damaging several buildings.
One woman, 62-year-old Vera Sayenko, died when a shell hit her ninth floor apartment, neighbors told an AP journalist.
"Everything we have collected in our life is destroyed. We have become poor," said Valery, whose apartment was also destroyed. He would not give his last name. "Show all Ukrainians what happened here. What else do they want, to ruin the town and kill people?"
Ukrainian police and prosecutors were also investigating the death of a Russian cameraman working for Russia's Channel One. Anatoly Klyan, 68, was fatally wounded late Sunday when a bus carrying journalists and soldiers' mothers was hit by gunfire as it approached a military base in eastern Ukraine after dark.
Klyan was the fifth journalist to die since the fighting began in April.
The conflict in eastern Ukraine began after a protest movement among those seeking closer ties with the EU prompted President Viktor Yanukovych to flee in February. Calling it an illegal coup, Russia seized and annexed Ukraine's Crimea region in March. The insurrection in the Russian-speaking east began shortly afterward.
Last week, Ukraine signed a trade and political deal with the EU — the one that Yanukovych had rejected.
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Szlanko reported from Slovyansk, Ukraine. Lynn Berry and Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow, Elaine Ganley in Paris and Josh Lederman in Washington contributed to this report.