TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) said on Monday it planned to convene a session that would discuss the escalating violence in Eastern Ukraine.

The meeting was proposed by Lithuania, a rotating member of the council, on behalf of Ukraine, and is scheduled to begin at 15:00 local time.

Fifteen members of the UNSC failed to pass a resolution that condemned the recent rocket attacks on the port of Mariupol, which claimed 30 lives on Saturday.

It is known that the UNSC has drafted a statement in relation to the incident in Mariupol on the behest of the United Kingdom (UK). Russia, which has been accused of aiding the separatists, blocked the motion, according to diplomats familiar to the matter.

Monday's meeting will be the latest meeting for a series of two dozen meetings that had been convened since the crisis in Ukraine unfolded almost one year ago.

As a permanent member of the UNSC, Russia retains its veto rights, which had resulted in multiple debates between the Western powers and Moscow's representatives. Russia has since maintained that it has never supported the acts of Ukrainian separatists.

ANTARA