"Let me begin by stating our alarm. Following weeks of relative calm, the Council meets today amidst the worst hostilities in eastern Ukraine since the ceasefire and Minsk Protocol were agreed on September 5," Jeffrey Feltman said Wednesday.
According to Feltman, encouraging signs, such as prisoner exchanges, are being overshadowed by renewed fighting and a deepening political stalemate.
"While the heavy fighting of the past few days was initially concentrated around Donetsk airport, the number of dead and injured, including innocent civilians, are quickly rising elsewhere, as violence spreads throughout the regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, including to heavily populated civilian areas such as Donetsk city," Feltman stated.
Feltman expressed hopes that progress, required to return to implementation of Minsk agreements, will be achieved during the Normandy Format meeting in Berlin, taking place late Wednesday.
Despite a ceasefire deal agreed between Ukrainian independence supporters and Kiev in September in Minsk, clashes continue in the Eastern regions of the country. Over the weekend, Kiev shelled residential areas in eastern Ukraine. On Monday, a senior commander of the armed militia in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) said that more than 30 civilians, including children, were killed on Sunday in the city of Horlivka in the Donbas region in a series of airstrikes carried out by Ukrainian combat jets.
