By Laurence Norman in Brussels and Juris Ka a in Riga 

European Union governments began two weeks of debate on the bloc's policy toward Russia and Ukraine on Friday, with an apparent consensus emerging that the EU would stick to its sanctions regime against Moscow for now.

Foreign ministers are meeting Friday and Saturday in the Latvian capital Riga for an informal summit and will then gather in Brussels on March 16; EU leaders will discuss the situation at a summit on March 19-20.

On their way into the meeting, most foreign ministers acknowledged that fighting had calmed across much of eastern Ukraine in recent days following the Feb. 12 cease-fire agreement, but remained cautious about the prospects for lasting peace.

"Concerning the situation in eastern Ukraine, we are not where we would like to be," said German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

He said over the past few days there had been a noticeable reduction in violence and cease-fire violations but "we are not yet in a phase of a really sustainable cease-fire. Further steps are needed, for instance, the withdrawal of heavy weaponry, the exchange of hostages."

Russia denies supplying and financing the separatists in Ukraine and denies it has sent in troops to support them.

Observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said Wednesday that fighting between Ukrainian government forces and Russia-backed militants continued to subside but they haven't been able to verify the withdrawal of heavy weapons from the front lines. Mr. Steinmeier said other EU member countries needed to help increase the OSCE's budget.

Spain's Foreign Minister José Manuel García-Margallo said he would travel to Moscow on Monday and Tuesday to meet his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov. If the cease-fire doesn't hold, he said the EU would have to look at a Plan B, including fresh measures to pressure Russia, but now wasn't the right moment to do so.

"We have to give an opportunity to peace," he said.

The EU has imposed targeted sanctions on dozens of Russian and separatist officials and entities and last summer placed broader restrictions on its defense, energy and financial ties with Russia. The latter measures expire in July. The backing of all 28 member states is needed to renew them

However, the EU has struggled to maintain unity on the situation in Ukraine and Russia's role in the crisis.

Some countries such Lithuania, Poland and the U.K. have taken a more hawkish stance to further increase pressure on Russia, while others governments from Greece, Hungary and elsewhere have criticized the sanctions against Moscow as offering no real solution.

Mr. Steinmeier said the issue of the EU's sanctions on Russia wasn't on the agenda of the Riga meeting, but could be discussed.

"For me, the German position it is clear," he said. "Accelerating the implementation (of Minsk) is now central, not so much the question of further sanctions."

The EU's divisions have become more pronounced in recent weeks. Russia's President Vladimir Putin made a high-profile trip to Hungary last month and on Thursday, Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi made an official visit to Moscow to meet Mr. Putin, the first leader of a large European country to do so since Russia annexed Crimea a year ago.

The EU has come in for criticism from some in Washington too. A group of senior U.S. lawmakers called on the Obama administration this week to provide lethal aid to Ukraine to counter Russia's involvements. They slammed the "lack of clarity" among Western countries to Russia's actions.

On Friday, the British government said it would provide more nonlethal military equipment to Ukraine over the coming weeks.

"Our overall aim is to strengthen the defensive capability of the Ukrainian armed forces and build the resilience that they need," U.K. Defense Secretary Michael Fallon said in a statement. The consignment of equipment follows Prime Minister David Cameron's announcement last week that Britain will send military personnel to Ukraine to help train its armed forces.

EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini pushed back against suggestions the EU had done too little on Ukraine.

On her way into the meeting in Riga, she said the bloc was assisting Ukrainian authorities across a range of areas and was working to help ensure that the Minsk deal was implemented. She said the EU will "stay united for sure" over its sanctions regime.

Earlier Friday in Riga, Ms. Mogherini said the bloc will also begin to think about its longer-term relationship with Russia.

"This is a question to which at some point we will have to answer together, keeping the same level of unity within [the] European Union that we have managed to keep, and will manage to keep both on the side of the sanctions and the side of the support to Ukraine," she said.

The crisis in Libya is also on the agenda at the Riga meeting. United Nations special envoy Bernardino León, who is holding peace talks in Rabat, Morocco, will speak to the foreign ministers about the situation in the North African country on Friday.

Latvian Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics said the EU may need to set up a fresh support mission to help Libyan authorities if a national unity government of some kind can be formed.

Ms. Mogherini said the bloc would discuss what "concrete steps" it could take to support a political solution and help rebuild the country. She said ministers would return to this theme on March 16.

Write to Laurence Norman at laurence.norman@wsj.com