Kiev : Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseny Yatsenyuk Thursday called for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council over the Russian military presence in the country.
“I consider it necessary to ask our Western partners to call an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council because Russia has significantly increased its military presence in Ukraine,” Yatsenyuk said during his meeting with the representatives of the Ukrainian World Congress.
Yatsenyuk also asked the US, the European Union (EU) and the countries of the Group of Seven industrial nations to step up economic pressure on Moscow by freezing the assets of Russian companies, Xinhua reported.
“We ask to freeze Russian assets and finances until Russia’s withdrawal of its troops and equipment from the territory of Ukraine,” Yatsenyuk said.
Tensions in Ukraine were heightened after Ukrainian military leaders Wednesday said that Russia had launched an incursion into Ukraine’s eastern region, where violent confrontation between government troops and independence-seeking insurgents is under way.
Ukrainian military spokesman Andriy Lysenko said that five Russian armoured vehicles and one truck established their camps near the rebel-controlled area in Donetsk region, not far from where Ukraine detained 10 Russian soldiers Monday.
Ukraine’s State Security Service also said in a statement that it had detained another Russian soldier in the east of the country who has confessed his unit provided military support to separatist rebels.
Russia denies sending weapons and soldiers to help the rebels and says the men captured Monday had crossed an unmarked section of the border by accident.