The United Nations urges parties to the conflict in eastern Ukraine to immediately halt any hostilities and renew efforts toward a peaceful settlement, Spokesman for the UN Secretary-General Stephane Dujarric told TASS.
He called clashes on the line of contact in Donbass "a direct violation of the Minsk Agreements".
"We call on all parties to immediately halt all hostilities, fully observe the ceasefire, allow immediate and unhindered humanitarian access to the affected population, facilitate full and safe access to the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to report on the situation on the ground, and renew efforts towards the peaceful settlement of the conflict," the UN spokesman said.
Dujarric said the UN is "deeply concerned about the escalation of fighting in eastern Ukraine, which has reportedly led to a number of casualties in recent days".
The number of armed clashes in the area has grown sharply in the past two days. The official Ukrainian authorities have accused militias of escalating the situation, while Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko has said demonstratively that he had to cut short his visit to Germany, although the program of the visit had been already exhausted by that time.
According the defense ministry of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, Kiev troops launched an attack on the republic on Sunday evening, but were rebuffed and had to return to their positions.
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