Ukraine's Parliament imposes state of emergency
The Parliament approved the President's proposal to invoke a state of emergency and left Donetsk and Lugansk out of it.
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The Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada
The Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's Parliament, declared an official state of emergency, except for the Donetsk and Lugansk Republics.
Ukraine's security and defense council secretary Oleksiy Danilov said, "The situation is difficult but remains completely under our control."
The state of emergency is claimed to be in response to Russia's deployment of troops on the border with Donbass and is to be implemented on Thursday, to remain in place for a month.
Kiev Mayor Vitali Klitschko told reporters that under the emergency state, "mass events and strikes" are banned across the country.
He said specific measures include checkpoints at the main entrances into the capital as well as "special controls" at train stations and airports.
The EU will hold an emergency summit in Brussels late Thursday on the Russian-Ukrainian crisis, European Council President Charles Michel announced in a letter to the bloc's leaders.
The summit follows the EU's adoption of sanctions against Russia for declaring the independence of DPR and LPR.
Russia’s recent decision to recognize DPR and LPR followed a deterioration of the situation on the line of contact between Ukraine and the breakaway republics. Russia has repeatedly denied any intention of launching a large-scale military operation against Ukraine, but nevertheless, the West continued to militarize Ukraine, which in its turn, bombed the DPR and LPR over the past few days causing civilian and military casualties, without Russia even moving an inch when Ukraine transgressed.