(VOVworld) - US Vice President Joe Biden and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko expressed their concern over a recent surge in fighting in eastern Ukraine amidst tensions between Moscow and Kiev.

Ukraine President Petro Poroshenko (L); US Vice President Joe Biden (R) (Photo: mb.com.ph)

The White House said that during their phone call, the two leaders agreed that ceasefire violations by combined Russian-separatist forces are at their highest levels since 2015 with regular use of heavy weapons”. They reiterated the need for a political and diplomatic resolution of the conflict through full implementation by all parties of the Minsk agreements, signed in February last year.

Biden and Poroshenko also talked about conditions set by the International Monetary Fund for disbursement of the next tranche of financial assistance to Ukraine. They agreed on the importance of recent Ukrainian efforts to continue critical anti-corruption reforms.