14/03/2014 11:20
Ukraine crisis: Russia tells UN it does not want war
Russia's ambassador to the United Nations has told an emergency meeting of the Security Council that Moscow "does not want war" with Ukraine, the BBC reported.
Vitaly Churkin was responding to a direct question from Ukraine's interim PM Arseniy Yatsenyuk.
But Mr Churkin gave an impassioned defence of Crimea's right to hold a referendum on whether to join Russia.
In the east Ukraine city of Donetsk, one person died in violence between rival protesters, said officials.
Several people were also injured as hundreds of pro-Russia protesters clashed with a similar-sized group of Kiev supporters in the city's Lenin Square, said local health authorities.
It is the worst violence since the fall of Ukraine President Viktor Yanukovych on 22 February.
Tensions are high as diplomatic efforts intensify ahead of Sunday's controversial referendum in the mainly ethnic Russian autonomous region of Crimea.
US Secretary of State John Kerry is due to meet Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in London on Friday.
Mr Yatsenyuk told the Security Council that his country was a victim of Russian aggression, and held up a copy of the UN Charter to make his point that Moscow was violating it and several other international treaties.
But he said he still believed "we have a chance to resolve this conflict in a peaceful manner" and urged Moscow to meet for direct talks.
Addressing Mr Churkin directly, he said in Russian that Kiev was "looking for an answer to the question, whether Russians want war" with a country with whom it has "for decades had warm and friendly relations."
"I'm convinced that Russians do not want war," he said. "I hope that the Russian government and the Russian president will heed the wishes of their people and that we return to dialogue and solve this conflict."
In response, Mr Churkin said: "Russia does not want war and nor do the Russians, and I'm convinced that Ukrainians don't want this either.
"Furthermore, we do not... interpret the situation in such terms. We don't want any further exacerbation of the situation."