European Union leaders stopped short of imposing new economic sanctions on Russia in response to the latest developments in Ukraine early Sunday, instead tasking the organization's executive body to "urgently" prepare tougher economic sanctions that could be adopted within a week after Ukraine's president warned of a possible "full-scale war" in eastern Europe, reports GHN based on Fox News.
The 28 leaders of E.U. member countries also issued a statement calling on Russia to "immediately withdraw all its military assets and forces from Ukraine."
In recent days, a new advance by Moscow-backed separatist rebels has resulted in the seizure of the coastal town of Novoazovsk, stoking fears that the larger port of Mariupol would be the next target.
The offensive appears to have succeeded in relieving some of the pressure on the rebel-held cities of Donetsk and Luhansk, which had been surrounded by government troops in recent weeks. Ukraine military spokesman Col. Andriy Lysenko said Saturday that troops were abandoning the town of of Ilovaysk, about 15 miles east of Donetsk, where its forces had been surrounded by rebels for days.
"We are surrendering this city," Ukraine's Lysenko told reporters. "Our task now is to evacuate our military with the least possible losses in order to regroup." He said that regular units of the military had been ordered to retreat from Novosvitlivka and Khryashchuvate, two towns on the main road between the Russian border and Luhansk. Ukraine had claimed control of Novosvitlivka earlier in August.
NATO said this week that at least 1,000 Russian soldiers are in Ukraine. Russia denies that. NATO also says Russia has amassed some 20,000 troops just across Ukraine's eastern border, which could rapidly carry out a full-scale invasion. Russia has said that it has no intention of invading Ukraine and has also repeatedly denied Ukrainian accusations that it is providing weapons and training to the separatists.