Ukraine in Arabic | Regions of Eastern Ukraine will have more autonomy
KYIV/Ukraine in Arabic/ Petro Poroshenko said the regions would remain part of Ukraine and rejected the idea of federalization, something both Russia and the Russian-backed separatists are still pushing for even after a cease-fire that began Friday.
According to him, the current ceasefire had changed the situation "drastically", despite reports that rebels had captured another town.
One rebel leader in Donetsk dismissed his comments and said they intended to break away and become independent.
The ceasefire came into effect last Friday in a deal in Belarus backed by Ukraine, the separatists and Russia.
More than 2,600 people have been killed since fighting between pro-Russian rebels and government forces erupted in April.
Mr Poroshenko and Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke by phone on Tuesday and said they were satisfied with how it was holding, a Kremlin official said on Wednesday.
Speaking during a televised meeting with his government, Ukraine's leader said that implementing the truce had been "difficult" in the midst of a "war for the independence and integrity" of the country.
But he added: "the situation has radically changed at the front. Before the ceasefire was announced, Ukraine was losing the lives of dozens of its heroes on a daily basis."
No territorial concessions
He said he was seeking a permanent solution to the conflict and had submitted a bill to parliament that would give separatists more autonomy but with "a status that keeps these regions in Ukraine".
"Ukraine will not make any concessions on issues of its territorial integrity," he insisted.
But Andrei Purgin, the deputy prime minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, responded to Mr Poroshenko's comments by saying that rebels "are not considering remaining part of Ukraine".
Earlier, rebels said they had captured the town of Komsomolske in the Donetsk region and posted a video online showing their flag being raised over the town council building.
It is unclear whether they met any resistance from government forces.
Separatists in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions declared their independence in April following Russia's annexation of the Crimea peninsula.
Before the current truce came into place, rebels had made big gains in eastern Ukraine and seized territory a few miles outside Mariupol.
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe has said it is discussing the possibility of sending drones to monitor the truce.
Meanwhile, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said on Wednesday that Ukraine bore "full responsibility" for the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 on 17 July.
He was speaking after Dutch investigators released a preliminary report on Tuesday, saying that the plane, which crashed in rebel-held territory in eastern Ukraine, was hit by by "objects" that "pierced the plane at high velocity".
All 298 people on board died when the plane came down. Ukraine says it was shot down by rebels using Russian hardware.
But Mr Shoigu told Malaysian Defense Minister Hishammuddin Hussein that Ukraine "bears full, total responsibility" for the crash because it happened in Ukrainian airspace.
Russian media reaction to MH17 report
Mikhail Khodarenok, writing in Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper:
"It is nonsense to spend two months investigating the crash and not to be able to say what destroyed the aircraft... It seems the results they obtained do not fit the 'right' theory. That's why they are beating about the bush."
Igor Korotchenko, writing in the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper:
"We have got no closer to knowing who downed the aircraft and with what missile. The only conclusion we can draw is that Ukraine is hiding the traces and preventing an objective inquiry... The answer is clear: the evidence shows what actually happened to the airliner, and it looks like Ukraine is to blame."