Ukraine calls for global efforts to de-escalate crisis

Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseny Yatsenyuk Wednesday urged the international community to make coordinated efforts to de-escalate the tensions in the country's eastern regions.

"In order to establish peace, the international community should act as a single institution that fights for peace in Ukraine and in the world," Xinhua quoted Yatsenyuk as saying in a cabinet meeting.

Kiev hopes that the global community and international organisations will continue to provide Ukraine with the aid it needs, including financial help and security assistance, he added.

Yatsenyuk asked the International Monetary Fund to provide expert support to help stabilise the Ukrainian financial market, and called on the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to help prevent humanitarian catastrophes in the war-inflicted regions.

Kiev relies on the OSCE and the ICRC for their assistance to deliver humanitarian aid to rebel-controlled areas in eastern Ukraine, Yatsenyuk said.

Since fighting flared in mid-April in Ukraine's Donetsk and Lugansk regions, more than 4,000 people have been killed and hundreds of thousands of others displaced.

Most residents staying in the besieged areas are suffering shortages of water, electricity and food.