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Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said Friday that there was no military solution to his countrys conflict with Russia and that Ukraine needed European economic and political support to help avoid an escalation.

The Ukrainian president, who struck a cease-fire with Russia last Friday, said he intends to give Russian-backed Ukrainian separatists in the east greater autonomy over their domestic affairs and that he hoped his fragile cease-fire with Moscow would hold.

Russia, which has denied sending combat troops to Ukraine, has been withdrawing its forces, which are now estimated to have dropped to as low as 1,000.

The pro-Russian separatists in the heavily industrialized eastern part of the country have been demanding independence and closer association with Russia. Poroshenko has said independence was not an option, but has endorsed greater decentralization of his country.

He expressed hope that further bloodshed could be avoided in a five-month conflict which has already claimed 3,000 lives. He predicted that Ukraine would win back its lost and disputed territory by remaining united and by raising economic conditions for its 45 million people.

Im confident that we will win an economic, demographic, and liberal competition, he said. Our standard of living will be much better. This is the only way we can win.

Poroshenko spoke at the 11th annual gathering of western and pro-western officials, diplomats, and analysts at YES, the Yalta European Strategy conference, which for the first time is meeting in Kiev rather than Yalta following Russias annexation of Crimea in March.

Surprisingly, there has been little discussion of Americas role in thwarting Russian aggression and almost no senior American official presence at a meeting where U.S. officials and representatives have traditionally been center stage. The Ukrainian president did not mention President Obama in his remarks Friday morning and barely referred to his upcoming trip to the United States next week. He said only that he was looking forward to his appearance before Congress on Sept 18 and unspecified discussions in Washington.

Among the senior Ukrainian officials at the meeting, only Yulia Tymoshenko, the former prime minister of Ukraine, called upon the world to help arm the Ukrainian army. Even she did not directly urge the United States to provide such assistance. If the world is not willing to defend its values, please arm Ukraine with modern weaponry to that we can do so, she said. We have the right to defend our country and values in a strong and effective way.

The keynote panel Friday featured appearances by Poroshenko, Martin Schulz, the president of the European Parliament, and Toomas Hendrik Ilves, the president of Estonia, who made an emotional appeal for western support for Ukraine in its effort to defend its territorial integrity and independence from Russian aggression. Its up to Europe to make all of this stop, he said.

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