William Hague has tried to reassure Ukraine that Britain is offering "practical help" to deal with the raging crisis in the country as he begins a tour of former Soviet states.
The Foreign Secretary has arrived in Moldova for the first leg of the "show of support" trip that takes in Georgia as well as Ukraine.
It comes after days of intense violence, with dozens killed in the southern port city of Odessa and gun battles in the eastern flashpoint town of Slovyansk that have killed four soldiers.
Pro-Russian insurgents in Slovyansk have now pulled back after Kiev launched a concerted "anti-terrorist operation" to combat the rebel forces.
Mr Hague said: "I am visiting Moldova, Ukraine and Georgia this week to show our support for these independent democratic nations.
"In addition I shall attend a Council of Europe meeting in Vienna which will discuss the situation in Ukraine.
"Moldova, Ukraine and Georgia have all made great efforts to build free societies and they deserve our backing.
"In each case, they need to carry out substantial reforms to ensure the rule of law and sustainable economic development, especially in tackling corruption.
"Clearly Ukraine is under immense pressure from Russian attempts to destabilise the country, provoke violence and, it seems, prevent elections happening later this month.
"The Ukrainian people want what people everywhere want: to live in a free country where the law applies fairly to everyone, a Ukraine where people have a chance to build decent lives for themselves rather than have their economy looted by corruption.
"We stand with them in their efforts to create a better Ukraine.
"I will urge the Ukrainian government to carry forward much-needed reform, and assure them of practical help from Britain.
"I will discuss Ukraine's plan for elections on 25 May, and meet three leading presidential candidates to hear their views on how best to ensure Ukraine's long-term future as a successful, independent, united, and sovereign nation."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article