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Ukraine has called for reform of the United Nations Security Council's structure to prevent Russia from using its veto power on the council to obstruct actions involving the conflict in eastern Ukraine.

"We need urgently to reform the Security Council in order to remove the veto power abuses," said Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin, who chaired a meeting of the council on unresolved conflicts in Europe on February 21.

A provision of the council's charter requires that "a party to a dispute shall abstain from voting" when the council acts, but it has been "blatantly ignored," he said.

Russia used its power, for example, to block an initiative to set up an international tribunal to prosecute those responsible for downing Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 in 2015 over the war zone in eastern Ukraine, killing hundreds of people.

The council should be able to address "bloody conflicts" regardless of whether one of the parties involved is a permanent council member with veto power, Klimkin said.

"It is imperative that clear proceedings are introduced for the proper implementation" of the council's abstention requirement, he said.

Russia, which maintains that it has no troops in Ukraine despite evidence to the contrary, has previously rejected as unacceptable any curbs on its veto power.

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Kyiv Urges Reforms To Stop Russia From Vetoing UN Action On Ukraine Conflict - RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty

Dmytro Firtash arrives at court in Vienna on Tuesday. His arrest is separate from the extradition ruling. Photograph: Heinz-Peter Bader/Reuters

Ukrainian businessman Dmytro Firtash has been detained in Vienna on a European arrest warrant, a spokeswoman for the citys prosecutors has said on Tuesday, minutes after an Austrian court granted an extradition request from the US.

The spokeswoman said Firtashs detention was technically separate from the extradition ruling as it was based on a Spanish request for his arrest for which she could give no details.

She said it was too early to tell how the implementation of the European arrest warrant would impact on the decision to extradite Firtash to the US over bribery allegations which he denies.

The extradition approval on Tuesday overturned an earlier ruling that had said the US request was politically motivated.

Firtash is a former supporter of Ukraines ousted president, Viktor Yanukovich, and made a fortune selling Russian gas to the Kiev government.

[The appeal against the previous ruling] has been granted, the judge told a courtroom packed with journalists and Firtashs family. This does not mean that somebody is being prejudged as guilty, but rather that it will be decided in another country whether they are guilty or innocent.

The judge said that since the previous Austrian court ruling, the US had offered further documents, based on witness statements, to strengthen its case against Firtash.

A US grand jury indicted Firtash in 2013, along with a member of Indias parliament and four others, on suspicion of bribing Indian government officials to gain access to minerals used to make titanium-based products.

Speaking before Tuesdays verdict, Firtashs lawyer, Dieter Bhmdorfer, reiterated the accusation that the US was driven by politics in the case.

We must not allow Austria to become a stooge for the political world power the USA, Bhmdorfer told the court, adding that Firtash was a victim of a US strategy to minimise Russian influence in Ukraine.

Washington welcomed the ousting of the pro-Russian Yanukovich amid mass street protests in February 2014 and has backed his pro-western successor, Petro Poroshenko. Yanukovich now lives in exile in Russia.

The Austrian judge dismissed Bhmdorfers charge and said Firtash would get a fair trial in the US.

Firtash, whose business concerns in gas trading and chemicals thrived under Yanukovich, has not returned to Ukraine since his initial detention in Vienna in March 2014.

His star has waned under the current administration partly due to his exile, but Firtash retains influence thanks to his part-ownership of Inter, a top Ukrainian television channel, and his gas distribution and fertiliser businesses.

He is Ukraines 16th richest man, with an estimated wealth of $251m (202m) as of 2016, according to Forbes Ukraine.

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Austria grants US request to extradite Ukrainian businessman Dmytro Firtash - The Guardian

Lopaskine village, Novoaidar district. The firewood is distributed to the population free of charge. CC BY-NC-ND / ICRC / G. Poshtarenko

In the Luhansk region, foresters take great pride in regenerating forests, helping protect the environment and provide firewood for the local population. Through a programme that also creates jobs and clears the region of landmines, the ICRC lends a hand.

Oleksandr, a forester from Pishchane forest in the Luhansk region of Ukraine, proudly shows photos from the 1920s: the yellowed black-and-white photos show foresters planting young pine seedlings. One of these is his grandfather, who also worked in the Luhansk region. Working in the forest in the steppe-like region is similar to being a sailor thousands of kilometres away from the ocean, but Oleksandr is proud of his profession because local forests protect agricultural land from the dry winds that used to raise sandstorms here.

However, when the armed conflict broke out here in 2014, people paid less attention to the forest. "Back then thousands of hectares of forest burned, there was no one to put out fires, as shells in the forest made it dangerous to reach the fire source", said Oleh, a forester from Stanytsia Luhanska Forestry and Hunting Department.

According to preliminary 20142015 estimates, at least half of the 30,000 hectares of forest inspected suffered damage. If left without proper care, the forest in the steppe area that is prone to dry winds quickly becomes infested with insects that threaten the work of several generations of foresters in the Luhansk region. Alas, with State funding for forest management reduced, the Forestry Department lacks adequate resources of its own to restore regular forestry services.

A programme launched recently by the ICRC has become the first step towards restoring forests in the affected areas of the Luhansk region. As part of the programme, the ICRC pays to have dry and burned trees cut and processed for firewood, which is distributed to the population free of charge. In 2017, the ICRC will help prepare 8,200 cubic metres of firewood, allowing around 1,500 households, as well as outpatient clinics and rural health posts in Novoaidar, Popasna and Stanytsia Luhanska districts of the Luhansk region to survive severe winter.

Forestry, Stanichno Luhansky district. Working brigade cleaning the area from dead wood. CC BY-NC-ND / ICRC / G. Poshtarenko

The programme has generated plenty of work that will continue until 2018. Indeed the amount of work created has even compelled the Forestry Department to recall previously dismissed workers. Today, 25 employees work at 28 sites, clearing damaged trees from the forest. To facilitate the project's implementation, and at the request of the Forestry Department, mine-clearance specialists cleared some mine-infested forest areas. In future such areas will no longer be a danger to be avoided, but rather a place where hundreds of tired citizens can find peace and calm, away from hustle and bustle of the city.

A few kilometres from the forest, evidence of reforestation is already there for all to see: a new forest, similar to the one that the region's first foresters planted nearly a century ago. "A few weeks ago there was a damaged forest in this area of 5.3 hectares," said forester Oleh. "Our foresters removed it and prepared the land for planting, and we managed to plant pine seedlings from our forest nursery here before the cold weather".

Spring will bring new work: thousands of hectares of forest have burned in the two years since the conflict began, and the effort to clear the land will go on. "If you do not remove the deadwood, clear the roads, and take fire prevention measures, in the summer heat the forest will start burning again", Oleh explained.

The villages of Lobacheve, Lopaskyne and Pishchane have received firewood. Next will be Triokhizbenka and other villages. In spring, when the planting season returns, the noises in the trees will be a reminder that future crops are safe from dry steppe winds. As foresters talk in their businesslike manner and make plans for the future, anxiety fades. "We will keep restoring the forest as long as we can", they say confidently as they slowly make their way out of the frosty forest, the snow already creaking under their feet.

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Ukraine: Foresters keep alive a century-old tradition - ICRC (press release)

BRUSSELS -- EU ambassadors are expected to agree to extend asset freezes imposed against former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and 15 of his associates for another year according to EU sources.

The sources told RFE/RL on February 21 that the decision was expected on March 1. It would then be approved by EU ministers at a meeting on March 3.

The asset freezes were first imposed by the EU after the fall of the Yanukovych regime in February 2014 and targeted people that Brussels believed had misappropriated Ukrainian state funds and assets. They have been prolonged annually ever since.

Viktor Yanukovych's son Oleksandr is included on the list, as are former Prime Ministers Mykola Azarov and Serhiy Arbuzov, former Justice Minister Olena Lukash, and former head of the Ukrainian presidential administration Andriy Klyuyev.

Several people on the list, including Viktor Yanukovych, challenged their inclusion at the European Court of Justice in 2016, but the court struck down the complaints and maintained that the reason for their listings were lawful.

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EU To Renew Asset Freeze Against Ukraine's Ex-President - RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty

A portrait of Russia's Ambassador to the UN Vitaly Churkin EPA/SERGEI CHIRIKOV/POOL

MOSCOW, February 21. /TASS/. Ukraines Permanent Representative to the UN apparently received orders to block the adoption of a statement by the chair of the UN Security Council devoted to late Russian envoy to the UN Vitaly Churkin, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said.

"I have almost no doubt that the permanent representative (of Ukraine) would have not decided to play such a trick," Lavrov said. "This means that he had been ordered to do that," he said, adding that Moscow has got accustomed to this Kievs behavior.

Ukraines authorities take no measures when neo-Nazis on TV and social networks and in the streets call for brutal action against Russians and are glad when some of those who protect the Russian language and culture in Ukraine are killed or die, he said.

"People who want to help the Ukrainian state establish a normal life receive threats," Lavrov stressed. "This is wild and inhuman, but this is not surprising for Ukraine," he said.

Foreign Ministrys Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova earlier wrote on Facebook that Kiev had blocked the adoption of a statement by the chair of the UN Security Council devoted to Vitaly Churkin, who died on Monday.

Vitaly Churkin passed away on February 20, a day before his 65th birthday. He had been Russias UN ambassador since April 8, 2006, representing the country in the United Nations Security Council. According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, the ambassador died at his place of work.

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Ukraine's envoy to UN forced to stonewall statement on Churkin Lavrov - TASS