BRUSSELS, August 17./TASS/. The European Union’s Political and Security Committee has urged Moscow and Kiev to avoid an escalation in tensions in the light of the recent developments in Crimea, an EU source told Tass on Wednesday after a meeting of the committee in Brussels.
"The Political and Security Committee has confirmed an appeal to avoid any actions and rhetoric that could further escalate the conflict," he said.
The source said the EU member countries also discussed the situation in eastern Ukraine on the whole. "They emphasized that a peace settlement in the conflict is the only possible solution," the source said.
"The EU and its member countries once again urged all parties to full implementation of the Minsk agreements and compliance with their commitments," the diplomat went on.
Besides, the Committee expressed full support for diplomatic efforts of the Normandy format (Russia, Germany, France and Ukraine), the European source added.
Last week, Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said it had thwarted attempted terrorist attacks in Crimea plotted by Ukraine’s Defense Ministry’s main intelligence directorate. A group of saboteurs was spotted in the small hours of August 7 near the city of Armyansk, close to the border with Ukraine. Two Russian servicemen were killed in the process of detaining the terrorists. The aborted terror attempts were designed to target Crimea’s critical infrastructure and vital facilities, the FSB said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin slammed the Ukrainian special services’ attempted sabotage plot in Crimea as irrational and criminal. The real purpose was to distract public attention from Ukraine’s current domestic quagmire, he added. Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko has dismissed Moscow’s accusations saying this was a provocation.