U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will attend celebrations in Moscow on Saturday of the Soviet Union's victory over Nazi Germany in World War II, despite criticism from Ukraine and other central European countries.

Ahead of his visit to Moscow for Victory Day, Ban will travel to Poland to attend commemorations there marking 70 years since the end of World War II and to Ukraine, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Monday.

Two Ukrainian soldiers and one rebel have been killed in eastern Ukraine in the past 24 hours, officials said Monday, as both sides traded blame over increasing ceasefire violations.

Two Ukrainian troops died and three more were wounded after their armored vehicle hit a mine in the Lugansk region, military spokesman Oleksandr Motuzyanyk said.

Ukraine said on Saturday that firefighters have extinguished a forest fire that had burned for four days near the Chernobyl plant, scene of the world's worst nuclear accident in 1986.

The fire was completely put out "at 9:00 am on Saturday," the emergencies ministry said in a statement.

Western powers are getting set to counter an expertly crafted Russian disinformation campaign over Ukraine which has left them wrong-footed too many times for comfort.

The aim is to win the daily battle for the news headlines, to get the EU and NATO story out to show that Russia's message falls well short of the truth.

Russia said on Friday that it was premature to discuss the deployment of a peacekeeping mission in war-torn eastern Ukraine before a peace deal agreed in February is implemented in full.

"Before the text of the Minsk agreement and its concrete points are implemented we believe that it would be absolutely wrong to raise any other issues including that about peacekeepers," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian news agencies.

The Ukrainian presidency on Thursday said Russian President Vladimir Putin was open to the deployment of a peacekeeping mission in war-torn eastern Ukraine, after the leaders of both countries spoke by phone with their French and German counterparts.

"In the context of the discussion of ways towards a peaceful resolution (of the conflict), President Putin has accepted the possibility of deploying a peacekeeping contingent to the Donbass region," the presidency said in a statement.

The leaders of France, Germany, Russia and Ukraine called Thursday for an end to fighting in eastern Ukraine where a ceasefire has been repeatedly flouted, the French presidency said on Thursday.

"Ceasefire violations and fighting, in particular near Mariupol, Shchastya, Donetsk airport and the area of Shyrokyne, must end," the French president's office said in a statement after the leaders held a four-way telephone call.

Dutch and international investigators have finished recovering human remains and wreckage from the MH17 plane crash site in eastern Ukraine, the mission's head said on Thursday.

All 298 passengers and crew on board the Malaysia Airlines jetliner -- the majority of them Dutch -- died when it was shot down over rebel-held eastern Ukraine last year.

Firefighters have nearly extinguished a forest fire near Ukraine's Chernobyl plant, scene of the world's worst nuclear accident in 1986, the emergency services said on Thursday.

The blaze came within about 20 kilometers (12 miles) of Chernobyl after breaking out Tuesday afternoon, but officials said it posed no danger to the plant and radiation levels in the zone remained unchanged.

Firefighters have brought under control a forest fire near Ukraine's Chernobyl plant, scene of the world's worst nuclear accident in 1986, the emergency services said on Wednesday.

The blaze came within about 20 kilometers (12 miles) of Chernobyl after breaking out Tuesday afternoon, but officials said it posed no danger to the plant and radiation levels in the zone remained unchanged.