AKIPRESS.COM - The U.S. and Ukraine are pushing EU leaders to impose economic sanctions on Russia at Wednesday’s summit, EUobserver reported.

The U.S. state department on Monday published a “fact sheet” which accuses Russia of sending heavy weapons to rebels in east Ukraine and of building up its own forces on Ukraine’s border.

It said Russia sent “at least two-dozen additional armored vehicles and artillery pieces and about as many military trucks” into Ukraine over the past week. It also said Russia has “allowed officials from the ‘Donetsk Peoples’ Republic’ to establish a recruiting office in Moscow” with a focus on “volunteers with experience operating heavy weapons.”

“While Russia says it seeks peace, its actions do not match its rhetoric,” the U.S. paper notes. “This all paints a telling picture of Russia’s continued policy of destabilization in eastern Ukraine.”

Sources also said the U.S. is ready to take unilateral measures, but President Barack Obama will wait until after the EU summit to decide.

Ukraine’s ambassador to the EU, Konstantin Yeliseyev, meanwhile circulated a document to press on Monday pointing out that the €1.2 billion warship deal violates the EU’s 2008 Code of Conduct on Arms Exports.

The code says arms sales should not take place if the weapons could be used to press territorial claims, undermine the security of EU states and their allies, or if the buyer has violated international law.

“Gaining the Mistral warships and relevant technologies by Russia will drastically change the balance of power in the Black Sea region to which a number of EU and NATO member states, as well as EU associated partners belong,” Yeliseyev said.

In an additional statement, Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko said on his website that a Ukrainian military plane flying near the Russian border at an altitude of 6,500 meters was shot down by a “powerful missile that was fired probably from the Russian Federation.”

The EU last week added the names of 11 pro-Russia rebel chiefs to its blacklist.

EU institutions have also drafted potential economic sanctions, which, according to one diplomatic source, include “light, medium and heavy” options against Russia’s high-tech, banking and energy sectors.