UN emergency meeting

Photo: The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

Vitaly Churkin, the Russian Federation’s ambassador to the United Nations, speaks during an U.N. Security Council emergency meeting called at Russia's request to discuss the growing crisis in Ukraine, Sunday, April 13, 2014, at United Nations headquarters.  (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

The U.N. Security Council is holding an emergency meeting at Russia's request amid growing violence in eastern Ukraine.

Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin says he is alarmed by Ukraine's announcement that it would deploy armed forces to quash an increasingly bold pro-Russian insurgency.

But Britain's ambassador, Mark Lyall Grant, says there are increasing signs of Russian involvement in orchestrating the violence.

"We want to use this Security Council meeting to expose that but also warn Russia against using events in eastern Ukraine as a pretext for further military escalation in the region," Lyall Grant said.

Ukrainian special forces exchanged gunfire with a pro-Russia militia in an eastern city Sunday morning, with at least one security officer killed and five others wounded.