Ukraine Crisis Could Get Out of Control Without Strict Truce - Poroshenko

Only strict ceasefire can alleviate the situation and prevent its escalation, the Ukrainian President said.

MINSK (Sputnik) — The situation in Ukraine will either de-escalate or go out of control if the Minsk agreements are not strictly implemented, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said Wednesday.

"I am convinced that the whole world is waiting [the developments in eastern Ukraine] either the situation will go along the path of de-escalation, ceasefire and weapons withdrawal, or it will go out of control," Poroshenko said at a meeting with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko ahead of Minsk peace talks in the 'Normandy format."

The leaders of Ukraine, Russia, France and Germany, comprising the so-called Normandy quartet, arrived in the Belarusian capital earlier on Wednesday to hold talks on Ukrainian reconciliation.

More than 5,400 people have been killed in the armed conflict in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, where government forces have been battling local independence supporters since April 2014.

The two warring sides signed a ceasefire agreement and a memorandum specifying its implementation in Minsk last September. However, fighting has continued in Donbas, escalating dramatically in the first weeks of 2015.