President Petro Poroshenko said on Wednesday a "real truce" had begun in Ukraine but that a long-lasting peace with pro-Russian insurgents would still take some time.

"There has not been a single shot fired. This is still not peace. This is not the end of the war," the pro-Western leader said in a televised address.

"The end of war will come when every patch of Ukrainian soil is liberated from the enemy, the occupant, the aggressor. But this is not simply a ceasefire -- this is a real truce."