Security MEPs call for resolution over escalation in eastern Ukraine

The Security and Defense Subcommittee in the European Parliament (EP) on Monday has called on the EP plenary next week to vote a resolution over the escalating tensions in the war-torn town of Avdeevka in eastern Ukraine.

The worsening security situation in eastern Ukraine was debated by members of European Parliament (MEPs) with Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze, Ukraine's Vice Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration here on Monday.

The tensions in Donetsk and Lugansk regions worsened last week as fierce fighting erupted between government troops and pro-independence insurgents in the Kiev-controlled Avdeevka town, bringing dozens of combatant and civilian casualties.

Klympush-Tsintsadze pointed out that tanks and heavy weapons, such as Grad multiple rocket launchers, which are prohibited by the Minsk agreements, were used in the violent fighting.

The warring sides blamed each other for the escalation of fighting.

To show their steady support to the Ukrainian government, the lawmakers of the European Union (EU) blamed Russia for deteriorating situation in eastern Ukraine, and called Moscow to"stop testing the West's reactions and to go on implementing the Minsk agreements."

A majority of Security and Defense Committee backed a call to debate the situation in eastern Ukraine at European Parliament's next plenary session in Strasbourg and to vote a resolution.

Last week, Russia called on Ukraine to "immediately stop armed provocations" in the Donbass region in eastern Ukraine, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

The ministry urges the Ukrainian government to observe the ceasefire, reached in Sept. 2014, in the southeast of Ukraine, where conflicts between Ukrainian government forces and pro-independence insurgents have recently escalated. Endit