MOSCOW, April 6. /TASS/. Kiev will only aggravate the domestic Ukrainian crisis by its decision to join NATO, this idea is unacceptable for people living in the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics (DPR, LPR), Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Tuesday.

"We deeply doubt that it will somehow help Ukraine to deal with its internal problem. From our point of view, it will only exacerbate the situation further because people’s opinions cannot be overlooked in any way when you talk about joining NATO. And if you ask opinions of several million people in the self-proclaimed republics, you will understand that such a membership in NATO is deeply unacceptable for these people," he underlined.

Earlier on Tuesday, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky said that a NATO membership is the only way to end the war in Donbass.

The situation in Donbass aggravated in late February, exchanges of fire were reported almost daily, particularly with the use of mortars and grenade launchers. The parties to the conflict placed the blame for the exacerbation on each other. Russian President Vladimir Putin held a videoconference on March 30 with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. In particular, Putin expressed concerns by Ukraine’s moves to aggravate the situation in Donbass.