The settlement of the Ukraine issue must return to the implementation of the Minsk Agreements, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday and called on Kyiv to sit down with leaders of the Donbas "republics" for negotiation.

Putin made the remarks at a press conference with visiting Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, who arrived in Moscow earlier on Friday.

"All Kyiv needs to do is sit down at the negotiating table with representatives of the Donbas and agree on political, military, economic and humanitarian measures to end this conflict. The sooner this happens, the better," he said.