UNITED NATIONS, August 05, 21:32 /ITAR-TASS/. The United Nations Security Council will hold a Russia-initiated emergency meeting on the humanitarian situation in Ukraine. The open meeting has been put on its daily agenda.

The meeting is to be opened immediately after a closed-door conference on sanctions against North Korea due to begin at 16:00 New York time (midnight in Moscow). As a rule, such consultations last for about a hour.

Earlier on Tuesday, U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said Russia had called for the U.N. Security Council to hold an emergency meeting on the humanitarian situation in Ukraine. “We are convening an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council on the humanitarian situation in Ukraine,” he said, adding that the Russian delegation hoped the meeting would begin at 17:00 New York time (01:00 a.m. Moscow time).

On Tuesday, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said that combat operations in Ukraine had forced about 120,000 people to leave their homes. Many of them found shelter in Russia. The Russian foreign ministry said that the United Nations, the International Organization for Migration and the International Committee of the Red Cross were ready to discuss Russia’s initiative to send a humanitarian mission to eastern Ukraine.