KIEV, November 12 (RIA Novosti) – Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council has gathered for an extraordinary session in Kiev over the acute situation in the country's east, the council's spokesperson, Andriy Lysenko, said Wednesday.
"The National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine is holding an extraordinary session today in regard to the acute situation in eastern Ukraine. During the session, which will be attended by Ukrainian Ambassador to the UN Yuriy Sergeyev, the representatives to the UN Secretariat will report on the situation in Ukraine," Lysenko said at a briefing.
The meeting comes amid reports of the alleged movement of troops in eastern Ukraine. Observers from the Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) said they had noticed the presence of large military convoys of heavy weapons, tanks and soldiers in Donbas over the weekend.
Last week, US State Department Spokesperson Jen Psaki said the United States had no information supporting claims that the convoys belonged to Russia.
Deputy Commander of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic militia Eduard Basurin told RIA Novosti last Sunday that the convoy detected by the SMM belonged to independence supporters and was moved from its initial location "for tactical reasons".
Since the start of the military conflict in eastern Ukraine, Kiev and the West have repeatedly accused Russia of intervening in the Ukrainian crisis, claiming that Moscow had sent troops and weapons to independence supporters in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. Russia has denied these accusations.
