UN Security Council to meet on Ukraine Sunday night

UNITED NATIONS - The UN Security Council is scheduled to meet behind closed doors in an emergency session on the situation of Ukraine on Sunday night as tensions are rising in the eastern part of the former Soviet republic.

"The president of the Security Council invites council members to informal consultations of the whole at 8.00 pm this evening, 13 April 2014," said an email message to the press here from the council president, referring to the closed emergency council meeting slated to start at 0000 GMT.

The meeting will be held at the request of the Russian Permanent Mission to the United Nations, diplomats said.

The meeting comes as the new Ukrainian government has given pro-Russian protesters a deadline to disarm or face a "full-scale anti-terrorist operation" by Ukrainian armed forces.

The Russian UN Mission sent a text message to reporters here saying that it had requested the meeting, which is not previously scheduled.

On Sunday, Ukraine's acting President Oleksandr Turchynov issued a promise of amnesty for pro-Russia separatists in eastern Ukraine but warned that anyone who continues to support the takeover of government buildings would be held responsible for their actions.

Turchynov added a warning to "terrorists" who did not comply, saying they would be subject to an army anti-terrorism operation if they do not comply by Monday morning.

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, reports said.

On Saturday, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon voiced his deep concerns at "the deteriorating situation in eastern Ukraine and the growing potential for violent clashes," saying that "further disturbances will not serve the interests of any side."

"The secretary-general is deeply concerned about the deteriorating situation in eastern Ukraine and the growing potential for violent clashes," said a statement issued here by Ban's spokesman Saturday night.

The UN chief stressed that further disturbances would not serve the interests of any side.

A new wave of unrest erupted in eastern Ukraine last weekend, when pro-Moscow activists seized several government buildings in the cities of Donetsk, Lugansk and Kharkov, demanding a referendum on autonomy and closer ties with Russia.

On March 18, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Crimean leaders signed a treaty to make the southern peninsula part of Russian territory after almost 97 percent of Crimean voters backed secession from Ukraine in a referendum.

Kiev has rejected the referendum and Crimea's integration into Russia, saying it was unconstitutional.

Earlier Saturday, about a dozen gunmen seized a state security building and a police station in Slavyansk, a town about 100 km north of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine.