Russian President Vladimir Putin held telephone talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, during which they discussed the situation in Donbass.

This was reported by the Kremlin press service.

The leaders expressed concern over the escalation of tensions in southeastern Ukraine, the press service said.

"Vladimir Putin drew attention to the provocative actions of Kiev, which has recently been purposefully exacerbating the situation on the contact line," the statement said. 

Putin and Merkel stressed the need for Kiev to strictly comply with the previously reached agreements, primarily on establishing a direct dialogue with Donetsk and Lugansk and legalizing the special status of Donbass.

“The parties to the conflict are called upon to restrain and intensify the negotiation process in order to fully implement the 2015 Minsk Package of Measures as an uncontested basis for settlement,” the Kremlin added.

  • RIA News

  • © Alexey Druzhinin

In turn, the deputy head of the Russian presidential administration, Dmitry Kozak, admitted that Moscow could defend the residents of Donbass, if forced.

“It all depends on the scale of the fire.

If there is, as our president says, Srebrenitsa is arranged, apparently, we will have to defend ourselves, ”RIA Novosti quotes Kozak.

He noted that the unleashing of full-scale hostilities in Donbass by the Kiev authorities will be the beginning of the end for Ukraine.

At the same time, Kozak expressed the opinion that with the help of imitation of hostilities in Donbass, Kiev is trying to solve the internal political crisis, thus diverting the attention of voters from the difficult situation in the country. 

“The catastrophic drop in the rating of President Volodymyr Zelensky and his Servant of the People party, contradictions between business elites, a pandemic - the authorities cannot cope with them with consistent work.

Therefore, the new team "Kvartal 95" came to stage their talented performance - "a military threat", - said Kozak.

Aggravation of the situation in Donbass

We will remind, on the eve of the head of the DPR Denis Pushilin noted that the situation on the contact line remains extremely turbulent, and the number of shelling since the beginning of the year has almost doubled in comparison with the last quarter of 2020.

He also noted that the number of equipment and military, which are concentrated along the line of contact from the Ukrainian side, speaks of Kiev's readiness to resume full-scale hostilities.

Donbass, he said, will make every effort to resolve the conflict through diplomatic means.

On April 7, the DPR again accused the Ukrainian security forces of a mortar attack. 

Meanwhile, an extraordinary meeting of the Trilateral Contact Group on Donbass took place on Wednesday.

Heidi Grau, Special Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office in Ukraine, said that the participants reaffirmed their commitment to the ceasefire.

At the same time, she noted the increased number of his violations and information confrontation between the parties in the media space.

In turn, the press service of the DPR Foreign Ministry said that Kiev at the meeting refused to agree on practical steps to ensure an armistice.

They noted that the representatives of Ukraine were concerned about “depicting a good mine in a bad game”, and not real de-escalation actions.

Russian Plenipotentiary Boris Gryzlov also confirmed that the four-hour meeting ended in vain.

Meanwhile, on April 8, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrived on a working visit to Donbass.

The press service of the Ukrainian leader said that Zelensky intends to communicate with the military and "support their morale."

"The head of state will visit the frontline positions where the comprehensive and sustainable ceasefire has been systematically violated recently, and where Ukrainian defenders were killed and wounded as a result of enemy shelling," the press service said.

In the DPR, commenting on the eve of the upcoming visit of the President of Ukraine, they called his visit "work for the public", which does not affect the real measures to resolve the situation. 

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  • © Gleb Garanich

"Zelensky, like the Ukrainian delegation in the contact group, is simply engaged in PR, which has absolutely nothing to do with the desire for peace and the end of the war," Vladislav Berdichevsky, a deputy of the People's Council of the DPR, told RIA Novosti. 

The day before, Zelensky met with the head of the NATO Military Committee, Stuart Peach, where he also noted the deterioration of the situation in eastern Ukraine, which, in his opinion, began in December.

He noted an increase in the number of shelling, and also said that Kiev calls for adherence to the ceasefire in the format in which it operated after July 2020.

We will remind, the head of the DPR Denis Pushilin earlier drew attention to the fact that the ceasefire concluded in July 2020 was violated due to the fault of Ukraine, which refused a joint inspection and moved its equipment to the demarcation line. 

"Aggressive information campaign"

Meanwhile, the official representative of the Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova said that the department drew attention to the aggressive information campaign launched by Ukraine and a number of Western countries against Russia.

Moscow, she said, is being accused of escalating tensions in the Donbass and on the Russian-Ukrainian border.

At the same time, the reason was the deterioration of the situation in the region, provoked by Kiev itself, as well as the planned military training activities of the Russian armed forces, which are regularly carried out on the territory of Russia during this period of time and do not exceed the scale of previous years.

Note that a number of Western media are actively discussing the presence of the Russian Armed Forces near the border with Ukraine.

Presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov explained that the military is on the territory of the Russian Federation, and Russia does not pose a threat to anyone.

"We consider such a policy of disinformation and propaganda as actions designed to create the necessary information background and divert attention from Kiev's own military preparations in the Donbass, Ukrainian sabotage of the implementation of the Minsk agreements and the buildup of military activity of NATO countries in Ukraine," Zakharova stressed.

Denis Pushilin, in turn, emphasized that the annual Russian exercises in this region cause a terrible stir in the West, while the transfer of Ukrainian military equipment to the contact line, prohibited by the Minsk agreements, is ignored by foreign media.

Zakharova recalled that the current situation does not contribute to security in the region and causes serious concern on the Russian side.

“We call on Ukraine and NATO countries to stop the hysterical Russophobic propaganda campaign, stop military preparations and escalation of tensions in Donbass and refrain from actions that could lead to destabilization of the situation in eastern Ukraine,” the Foreign Ministry said.