UN Security Council to hold emergency meeting on Ukraine

The U.N. Security Council has called an emergency meeting at Russia’s request to discuss the growing crisis in Ukraine.

Russia’s U.N. mission sent a text message to reporters saying a closed meeting of the Security Council would begin at 8 p.m. Sunday (0000 GMT). The Russian mission said it had requested the meeting.

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The President of the Security Council confirmed in an email that members have been invited to attend “informal consultations” on Ukraine Sunday evening.

The meeting comes as the new Ukrainian government declared it would deploy armed forces to quash an increasingly bold pro-Russian insurgency in eastern Ukraine.

Ukrainian special forces exchanged gunfire with a pro-Russia militia in an eastern city Sunday morning, with at least one security officer killed and five others wounded.