Former Ukraine president Viktor Yanukovych has thanked Russian President Vladimir Putin for "saving my life" during the bloody demonstrations that led to his ouster.

Yanukovych, currently exiled in Russia, told the BBC that he would like to return to Ukraine one day and blamed the country's plight on the demonstrators who occupied Kiev's Maidan Square -- the focal point of the uprising against his rule.

The leaders of Russia, France and Germany clashed over the Ukraine crisis Monday, as the EU extended sanctions on Moscow on the eve of key diplomatic talks in Paris.

After a 45-minute three-way telephone conversation, German Chancellor Angela Merkel noted a "worrying" number of breaches in a ceasefire agreement clinched in February in Minsk, according to a government spokeswoman in Berlin.

Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel lamented the "insufficient" progress in resolving the Ukraine crisis after a telephone conversation Monday with Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to a source close to the French president.

"The chancellor and the president (Hollande) raised the need to put pressure on the various parties" given that progress is "insufficient," the source said, a day before foreign ministers from Ukraine, Russia, France and Germany hold talks in Paris on the crisis.

EU foreign ministers formally agreed Monday to prolong to January 2016 damaging economic sanctions against Russia to ensure it fully implements Ukraine peace accords, officials said.

"EU has extended economic sanctions against Russia until 31 January 2016, with a view to complete implementation of (the) Minsk agreement," an EU spokeswoman said in a tweeted message.

Ukraine on Sunday reported the death of two soldiers, while pro-Russian rebels accused Kiev's forces of killing a civilian as fresh clashes preceded peace talks aimed at ending the 15-month war.

Kiev military spokesman Andriy Lysenko said two government troops were killed and six wounded in mortar fire and shelling across swathes of the eastern separatist Donetsk province over the past day.

U.S. Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter will visit his European counterparts this week to take stock of cooperation with NATO in the wake of Russian aggression in Crimea and Ukraine.

The visit comes as officials say the military bloc's activity in Europe is at its strongest in decades.

The EU on Friday prolonged until 2016 a sanctions package over Russia's illegal annexation of Crimea, days after rolling over a series of damaging punitive measures against Moscow for its role in the Ukraine crisis.

The European Council said the 28-nation bloc continues to "condemn the illegal annexation of Crimea and Sevastopol by the Russian Federation and remains committed to fully implement its non-recognition policy."

NATO member Poland said Thursday that the post-Cold War period of peace is "now over", as the European Union grapples with various crises including the Ukraine conflict and terrorism.

Poland's defense minister spoke alongside NATO head Jens Stoltenberg in western Poland while attending the first full exercise of the Western defense alliance's new rapid reaction force -- part of NATO's biggest defense reinforcement since the Cold War.

Ukraine's parliament Thursday fired the powerful head of the SBU state security service after he fell foul of President Petro Poroshenko and became embroiled in a conflict with the nation's chief prosecutor.

"The Verkhovna Rada (parliament) supported my proposal to dismiss Valentyn Nalyvaychenko from his post as head of the SBU," Poroshenko tweeted after 248 lawmakers in the 450-seat chamber supported the president's formal request.

Moscow will extend its embargo on European Union agricultural products but is unlikely to go further if the EU extends sanctions as expected, economy minister Alexei Ulyukayev said Thursday.

"We'll just keep the status quo: the embargo on produce introduced in response to the sanctions regime -- of course, it's a symmetrical measure," Ulyukayev told RIA Novosti state news agency.