Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin has said that the authorities are planning to seek a political solution to the crisis in eastern Ukraine, rather than hold a military operation to return the territories controlled by members of illegal armed groups.

"The issue concerns a political solution. Such a military operation would also affect the civilian population, our Ukrainian citizens," he said in an interview with German newspaper Rheinische Post.

Klimkin said that the Ukrainian government planned to continue to comply with the ceasefire and continue the search for a political solution.

He said that the economic situation in Luhansk and Donetsk was bad and would continue to worsen.

"We are trying to provide as much humanitarian aid as possible. We made a difficult decision to continue to supply electricity and gas, although these supplies are not paid for. We cannot just leave people alone," Klimkin said.

He said that if Russian-supported separatists again begin to attack the positions of the Ukrainian army, it will give them a worthy rebuff, as its fighting capacity had recently increased substantially.

"Today there are thousands of soldiers in its ranks who can fight and have already proved that," Klimkin said.

He also made clear that Ukraine would soon again need further financial assistance from the West.

"We're trying to get more aid. Our industrial centers are located in eastern Ukraine, and we won't get, for example, coal from the mines that are not operating there. Now we need to buy it abroad, which is a huge additional burden. But I want to make clear that we will do all we can on our part to justify such assistance. We want to implement far-reaching reforms in the government and business so that money is used effectively," Klimkin said.