Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin told The Independent that Russian President Vladimir Putin has said he may agree to the deployment of international peacekeepers in eastern Ukraine.

Putin, who is said to have made the remarks during informal talks at peace negotiations in Minsk earlier this year, has shown no public sign of accepting such a move, The Independent reported.

But as Ukraine prepares to push its own peacekeeper proposals at the United Nations General Assembly in New York this week, diplomats are scrutinising Moscow carefully for its reaction, Klimkin said.

"We need a stabilising force, a neutral arbiter on the ground," Klimkin said. Such peacekeepers could take the form of "either UN troops, or a hybrid force made up with EU law enforcers," he added.

Klimkin said Putin had told him he "might accept a peacekeeping force" as Russia and Ukraine met alongside the leaders of France and Germany to hammer out the deal that has brought a partial halt to fighting between Ukrainian forces and pro-Russian rebels in the area known as Donbas, The Independent reported.

How the Russians respond to Ukraine’s proposals will prove a litmus test for the whole Minsk peace deal, Klimkin said.

"Peace is entirely in Russia’s hands. If Russia is truly interested in stability and de-escalation, it will accept peacekeepers as the best way to go. If they aren’t ready to accept them, that tells you all you need to know about the … political will in Moscow for implementing Minsk," he said.