UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has praised the fact that the ceasefire is mostly observed in Ukraine's east but noted that some violations continued.

"I'm encouraged that this ceasefire based on the Minsk protocol is largely holding, even though from time to time we see all this violence taking place," he said at a briefing on Tuesday.

"I have been speaking to President [of Ukraine Petro] Poroshenko and other leaders that they should continue to have a consultation and dialogue, a very sincere dialogue between Ukraine and Russia. And I think there is a lot of, now, support for the peace and stability and ceasefire from all the actors," Ban added.

The UN secretary general said that they were maintaining a human rights monitoring team and he himself had been doing speaking to Russia, European Union and the Ukrainian leaders.

Ban once again stressed that there could be no military solution to the Ukrainian crisis, but only a political one.

"And we should know that in all the crises, generally, there is no military solution. There should be a political dialogue for political solution. Only then, any solution can be a sustainable one, based on firm political dialogue. I'm really urging the leaders in the region to continue such dialogue," the secretary general said.