KYIV: Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on Monday he had asked member states of the United Nations Security Council to hold urgent discussions on practical steps to guarantee his country's security and on de-escalating the tensions with Russia.
Russia is a permanent veto-wielding member of the UNSC.
Russia's President Vladimir Putin said that Russia would decide later on Monday whether or not to recognise two breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine as independent.
He made the remark at the end of a televised meeting of his Security Council in which a series of officials spoke of the deteriorating situation in the two self-proclaimed republics in eastern Ukraine.
Russian-backed separatists have been battling Ukrainian government forces in the region since 2014, in a conflict that Kyiv says has cost around 15,000 lives.
