+++ Ukraine crisis - live updates +++

All updates in Universal Coordinated Time (UTC)

As events continue to unfold rapidly in Ukraine, stay with Deutsche Welle for live updates on the latest developments.

21:25 Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko has called on his national security council to consider asking for a UN-mandated peacekeeping mission to monitor a ceasefire in eastern Ukraine.

"We see the best format would be a police mission from the European Union. We are sure this would be the most effective and best guarantee for security," Poroshenko said during a late meeting with the security chiefs.

20:00 US State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Secretary of State John Kerry had urged Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in a phone call earlier on Wednesday to stop Russian and separatist attacks on Ukrainian forces in Debaltseve. She said despite the fighting in eastern Ukraine, the Minsk peace deal was still alive.

"We don't consider it dead," Psaki told reporters. "We still need to give time for the agreement to work through."

18:15 "We want to shape this European peace order together with Russia, not against Russia," German Chancellor Angela Merkel said in her first comments since pro-Russian separatists captured the railway hub of Debaltseve.

Speaking at a meeting of her conservative CDU party in the east German town of Demmin, Merkel added, however, that she couldn't ignore Moscow's violations of international law.

"We cannot wave our principles - and the annexation of Crimea for example is a violation of international law," the chancellor said.

18:00 Ukraine's general armed forces reported at least 22 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed and more than 150 wounded in fighting with pro-Russian separatists in Debaltseve over the past three days.

16:45 US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov have discussed over the phone the implementation of a peace plan to end the conflict in eastern Ukraine.

A statement from the Russian Foreign Ministry said Lavrov stressed the importance of direct dialogue between Kyiv, Donetsk and Luhansk, including a swift end to armed clashes in the strategic town of Debaltseve.

The minister also "reiterated the obligations of the Ukrainian authorities to [conduct] constitutional reform and provide Donbass with a special status," the statement said.

15:00 German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said the events unfolding in Debaltseve in eastern Ukraine threaten to "derail" the Minsk ceasefire agreement. Steinmeier said the German government viewed the military actions of the pro-Russian separatists in the town as a breach of the truce deal, and would strive to prevent the situation from escalating further.

The foreign minister added that Germany's Foreign Office has pledged 10 million euros ($11.3 million) to help ease the humanitarian situation facing communities in the conflict area.

13:00 NATO urges Russia to withdraw all forces from eastern Ukraine.

"I urge Russia to withdraw all its forces from eastern Ukraine, stop all its support for the separatists and to respect the Minsk agreement," NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters in the Latvian capital of Riga.

"The ceasefire has not been respected," said Stoltenberg, who added that the refusal of the separatists to respect the ceasefire is a threat to the Minsk agreement.

12:30 The leaders of Ukraine, Russia, Germany and France will hold a telephone call later Wednesday to discuss the crisis unfolding in eastern Ukraine, a spokesman for the French government said.

12:05 Germany said the ceasefire agreed to in Minsk has been damaged. "The hopes linked to the Minsk agreement have been seriously damaged," German Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman Steffen Seibert said.

12:00 EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini charged pro-Russian separatists with violating the recently-brokered ceasefire.

"The actions by the Russia-backed separatists in Debaltseve are a clear violation of the ceasefire," she said. "The separatists must stop all military activities. Russia and the separatists have to immediately and fully implement the commitments agreed to in Minsk, in line with yesterday's UN Security Council resolution, starting with the respect of the ceasefire and the withdrawal of heavy weapons."

Mogherini added that the EU is ready to take "appropriate action" in the event of further violations of the Minsk agreement.

11:45 Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko announced that government security forces have withdrawn from the embattled town of Debaltseve, which pro-Russian separatists had claimed to have completely surrounded.

"This morning the Ukrainian armed forces together with the National Guard completed an operation for a planned and organized withdrawal from Debaltseve. As of now we can say that 80 percent of our units have left," Poroshenko said in a statement released by his press service.

Poroshenko added that additional units were expected to be withdrawn and that he is heading to the front lines to "meet those who have left Debaltseve."

11:43 Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the ceasefire is being observed almost in its entirety with the exception of Debaltseve.

"The ceasefire is being observed along practically the entire frontline and in a few regions there is a readiness - at least the militia announced it publicly - to withdraw heavy weapons. The exception is the Debaltseve 'cauldron,'" Lavrov said at a news conference.

bw,nm/sms (AP, AFP, Reuters, dpa)