Ukraine plans to increase military spending by $3 billion by 2017

Country's defence ministry says its existing 2014 budget is $1.5 billion

Ukraine's president today vowed to boost military spending by $3 billion in the next three years as government forces seek to overpower pro-Russian separatists in the east.

President Petro Poroshenko made his pledge during a speech marking Ukraine's independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.

Speaking to a crowd of thousands in Kiev's Independence Square, Poroshenko says the country would increase military spending by $3 billion by 2017. The Ukrainian defence ministry says its existing 2014 budget is $1.5 billion.

Ukraine's military has pleaded for more resources to oust pro-Russian rebels, who still hold two major cities in the east, Donetsk and Luhansk. The United Nations estimates that the eastern fighting has claimed 2,000 lives since April.