Russian officials on Thursday warned that Kiev's call for the deployment of international peacekeepers in eastern Ukraine may destroy the Minsk agreement on ceasefire in the war-torn eastern Ukraine.

The Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council decided late Wednesday to issued an appeal to the United Nations and the European Union to deploy peacekeepers in eastern Ukraine to help enforce the ceasefire deal reached on Feb. 12 in the Belarusian capital of Minsk.

Russian Ambassador to the UN Vitaly Churkin said the appeal easily raises doubt about Kiev's commitment to the Minsk deal.

"It is vital to pull out weapons but not to indulge in proposing new initiatives," Churkin was quoted as saying by the TASS news agency. "And when they are proposing new schemes instead of implementing what has been agreed, it gives ground to suspect that they seek to destroy the Minsk agreements."

The ambassador added that the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, according to the agreement, has already been tasked with the monitoring mission.

Meanwhile, Sergei Naryshkin, speaker of the Russian State Duma, or the lower house, warned that Kiev's attempt to invite international peacekeepers to the region may disrupt the Minsk agreement.

"The agreement doesn't envisage such a measure, and in my opinion, this may be an element to disrupt it," he said.

Since the Minsk agreement came into force on Feb. 15, the ceasefire has been generally observed despite sporadic violations, particularly in the strategic transport hub of Debaltseve where fighting has been raging over the past days, which hardly puts the parties concerned at ease for the situation in the war-torn eastern Ukraine.

Under the agreement, the Ukrainian government forces began early Wednesday to withdraw from Debaltseve, amid reports that pro-independence rebels besieged the town and the government troops attempted to break through the encirclement.

Insurgents claimed that the new truce deal does not apply to Debaltseve, as the rebel leadership consider the town as "an internal territory" of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic. Endi

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