Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov expressed concern this morning that the situation in the Donbas could escalate into the full-scale resumption of military operations. “There are concerns that Ukraine’s civil war will resume. And if a civil war with full-scale military activities resumes near our borders, it will pose a threat to Russia’s national security,” he emphasized, reported TASS. “The current developments and Ukraine’s behavior in general create the risk of full-scale military activities. It is clear from various statements that Kiev does not completely reject the idea of using force to resolve its issue with the southeast,” Peskov said.
At the Foreign Ministry, spokeswoman Maria Zakharova warned during her weekly press briefing today that Ukraine’s accession to NATO will lead to disaster. “We have taken note of a statement by Ukrainian President Zelensky, who visited Donbas yesterday and said that the country’s accession to NATO would supposedly help end the conflict in the region. However, contrary to Kiev’s expectations, potential NATO accession will not only fail to bring peace to Ukraine but will, by contrast, lead to a large-scale rise in tensions in the southeast, possibly causing irreversible consequences for Ukraine’s statehood,” she said. “We once again call on the Kiev authorities to adopt a responsible approach and finally start implementing their obligations under the Minsk Package of Measures,” TASS quoted her as saying.
Zakharova stressed that the situation in Donbas remained complicated and tended to get worse because of “the bellicose intentions of Kiev, still guided by the illusion that there can be a military solution to the conflict in the country’s southeast.” “Troops and military equipment are being deployed to the region and mobilization plans are being updated,” she declared. “Ukrainian media outlets are whipping up hysteria based on the myth of the Russian threat, claiming that Moscow has plans to attack Ukraine in the near future. Kiev’s Western sponsors openly support most of the developments,” Zakharova said. Her complete briefing is posted on the Foreign Ministry’s website.