U.S. Ambassador Geoffrey Pyatt has advised Kyiv against the use of force to drive separatists out of the seized administrative buildings in the east of Ukraine.

"Our advice would be to encourage the government to continue on the course that it has been pursuing, seeking the strategy to cordon the cities, to use their security forces, and the army if necessary to ensure that weapons, money, instability are not trafficked in and out of these cities. But not to engage in forceful clearing of these buildings," Pyatt said at a press conference in Kyiv on Tuesday.

The ambassador praised the approach of Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatseniuk to the settlement of the situation in the country and expressed the hope that this approach will pay dividends.