(MENAFN- Qatar News Agency) The United Nations Security Council on Friday held an emergency session for a briefing on the volatile situation in Ukraine, with both Moscow and Kiev calling for no military confrontation. UN Assistant Secretary-General Oscar Fernandez-Taranco and Ukrainian UN envoy Yuriy Sergeyev briefed the 15-member council, which held the emergency session at the request of Ukraine. Sergeyev said after the closed-door meeting that his government "expressed a strong protest of Russian military maneuvers and demanded withdrawal immediately" from the southern Ukrainian region of Crimea, an area heavily populated by ethnic Russians and pro-Russian Ukrainians. He said Russian attack helicopters and large troop transport aircraft flew into Crimea while an unspecified number of forces advanced on the ground. "We observed the separatism in Crimea as, in a big amount, coming from Russia," Sergeyev said. "I think we are strong enough to defend ourselves. We have a strong spiritual feeling that we are right in what we are doing." "We protest the illegal movement, illegal presence," the Kiev envoy said, adding that "still we do not want to be in a strong confrontation." Ukraine requested the emergency session hours after its parliament adopted a resolution calling for a Security Council meeting after gunmen took control of airports in Crimea.
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