U.S. says truce in Ukraine "mostly holding"

The United States said on Tuesday that the ceasefire reached days ago is "mostly holding" in eastern Ukraine, but Washington will decide on new sanctions against Russia over the next few days.

"Our assessment is that the ceasefire in general is mostly holding," State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf told reporters at a daily news briefing.

She also cited reports of mortar attacks and small-arms fire around some places, including the Donetsk airport, as well as reports of "more intense violence" in Lugansk and Donetsk, two states now under the rebels' control.

She said Washington is still mulling more sanctions on Moscow, which the West and Kiev have accused of supporting the rebels in their battle against the government forces.

"The United States is finalizing measures to both deepen and broaden our sanctions across Russia's financial, energy and defense sectors," Harf said. "We're in close coordination with the EU on this."

The European Union (EU) announced a new package of sanctions against Russia on Monday, but did not put them into immediate effect.

"We are finalizing these packages, but we're going to make decisions based on what's happening on the ground in the next few days," Harf said.

The Ukrainian government and the rebels inked a ceasefire agreement on Friday in Minsk, capital of Belarus, at a meeting also attended by envoys from Russia and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

The deal was expected to pave the way for a political settlement of the Ukraine crisis, in which at least 2,600 people had been killed since March.