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Ukraine to appeal to UN over escalation of conflict in east Ukraine

Xinhua, February 1, 2017 Adjust font size:

Ukraine will ask the United Nations to consider the escalation of violence in the country's eastern Donbass region, President Petro Poroshenko said here Tuesday.

"I have instructed the deputy head of the presidential administration to immediately put the issue for consideration of the UN Security Council. Today we expect the relevant statements from our international partners," Poroshenko said after an emergency meeting with the heads of Ukraine's law enforcement agencies.

Besides, Kiev has requested an emergency session of the Trilateral Contact Group on Ukraine, which includes Ukraine, Russia and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Euroe, to discuss ways out of the ongoing confrontation, the Ukrainian president said.

Later in the day, the representatives of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk republics issued a joint statement, appealing for the leaders of Russia, the United States and Germany to prevent the humanitarian disaster in the region.

After more than a month of a relative calm, a fierce fighting between government troops and pro-independence rebels started in eastern Ukraine during the weekend, resulting in heavy combatant and civilian casualties. The Ukrainian army and the insurgents have accused each other of launching the offensive.

The conflict between government troops and rebels in eastern Ukraine has been raging since April 2014, claiming some 10,000 lives. Endit