Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko said he would "do all I can" to achieve NATO membership if people voted in favor | Odd Andersen/AFP via Getty Ukraine mulls referendum on NATO membership Polls show more than half of Ukrainians would favor joining the transatlantic alliance.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroschenko plans to put NATO membership to a referendum after polls showed 54 percent of the country favored joining the alliance, German media reported Thursday.

"Four years ago, only 16 percent [of the Ukrainian people] favored Ukraine's entry into NATO. Now it's 54 percent," Funke Mediengruppe quoted Poroshenko as saying in an interview. "As president, I am guided by the views of my people, and I will hold a referendum on the issue of NATO membership."

Poroschenko said he would "do all I can" to achieve NATO membership if people voted in favor.

His statement comes amid a surge of violent incidents in eastern Ukraine over the past few days and as U.S. President Donald Trump has indicated he is open to removing sanctions on Russia, imposed after it annexed Crimea in 2014.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on Wednesday called on Russia to use its "considerable influence" with separatist rebels fighting in eastern Ukraine to stop the violence.

The United Nations Security Council said Tuesday the situation in eastern Ukraine is worsening, leading to a “severe impact on the local civilian population." It called for an "immediate return" to the Minsk peace accords' agreed ceasefire.

More than 9,700 people have died in the conflict since 2014, when Russia annexed Ukraine's southern Crimea peninsula and separatist rebels later launched an insurgency in the east.