Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatseniuk said on Monday that Ukraine would like the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to send "maximum numbers" of monitors to the country to provide information that might help "defuse tensions" in its southern and eastern regions, the government press service said.

"Ukraine reaffirmed its readiness to accept maximum numbers of OSCE representatives so that, having the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the situation in the provinces, they help carry out a set of measures to defuse tensions," the press service of Ukraine's government said in a report on a meeting in Kyiv between Yatseniuk and OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Tim Guldimann.

Yatseniuk said Ukraine remains loyal to the OSCE principles and urged the organization's other member countries to stick to the postulates of the Helsinki Final Act, its founding document.