NATO has reportedly called off a meeting with Ukrainian officials due to fears of provoking the Russian government.

The military alliance had planned to meet with officials in Kiev to discuss its new missile-defense system based in Romania, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday. The meeting would have tackled the problem of debris, or off-course interceptor rockets, falling on Ukrainian territory in the event the missile shield was ever put into use.

However, escalating violence along Ukraine's eastern border has reportedly pushed NATO diplomats to rethink the meeting, with many unwilling to risk undermining relations with Moscow.

Fighting flared in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic Jan. 29, with heavy artillery fire falling on residential areas in the the Ukrainian held town of Avdiivka. The shelling resulted in numerous civilian injuries, one civilian death, and seven military deaths. A spokesperson for the Donetsk separatists, Eduard Basurin, confirmed that five of their soldiers were also killed in action.

Meanwhile Ukraine’s defense minister, Stepan Poltorak, claimed on Wednesday that a Ukrainian military transport aircraft had taken small arms fire while flying over the Black Sea.

He said that the gunfire came from a “Russian-captured oil rig” near the Odessa gas fields.