Illegal armed formations in Donbas, eastern Ukraine, have considerably decreased the number of attacks on Ukrainian troops and they did not use heavy weapons, Ukrainian Defense Minister speaker Oleksandr Motuzianyk has updated.

"From midnight till now, a mere six instances of the violation of the ceasefire by the enemy were registered. Four of them were reported near the town of Avdiyivka, and one in the Luhansk and Mariupol sectors each. In all the cases, the enemy used small arms only," Motuzianyk said at a briefing in Kyiv on Thursday.

"Judging from the report, one can speak about certain de-escalation, and the number of armed provocations has declined. We'll see what happens next," he said.

Prior to that, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who arrived in Kyiv on Wednesday, announced the ceasefire in Donbas from midnight on September 15 as "the pledge from Moscow."

"It would be a big step forward and would open a window of opportunity if weapons stayed quiet for seven days," he said at a press conference in Kyiv with his Ukrainian and French counterparts on Wednesday.

On Thursday, Steinmeier, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin and their French counterpart Jean-Marc Ayrault are visiting the Ukrainian-controlled towns of Kramatorsk and Sloviansk in eastern Ukraine.