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EU FMs to meet on Ukraine Monday

01 March 2014 21:44 (UTC +04:00)

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said in a statement earlier in Berlin that the challenges of Crimea must be dealt with "in the respect of Ukrainian unity and sovereignty."

Crimea, an autonomous region in southern Ukraine, is the new epicenter of the ongoing crisis in Ukraine.

Earlier in the day, the Russian Federal Council, or the upper house of the parliament, approved President Vladimir Putin's request for using armed forces in Ukraine, local media reported.

Russian legislators have asked Putin to stabilize the situation in the Ukrainian autonomous region of Crimea, reports said.

Crimean leader Sergey Aksenov on Saturday called on Putin to help guarantee peace in the crisis-torn autonomous republic in southern Ukraine.

Tensions escalated in Crimea this week following Kremlin-friendly Yanukovych's ouster by a protest aimed at keeping the country away from Russia's influence.

Crimea was given to Ukraine by Russia in 1954 as a symbol of the friendly alliance between the two sides and only became a part of an independent Ukraine after the disintegration of the former Soviet Union in 1991.