MOSCOW, February 22. /TASS/. Russia's decision to recognize the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics’ independence has stopped the civil war in Ukraine and will no longer allow new victims, Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matviyenko told reporters on Tuesday.

"This is a hard-won decision, for eight years we have been relentlessly persuading the authorities in Kiev, our European and other partners that we need to resolve this issue, and stop the domestic Ukrainian conflict. We did everything we could to be heard. Unfortunately, we can see that the situation has deteriorated, we have seen Ukraine's military gearing up for another attempt to resolve this problem using force. We understood that this couldn’t go on any longer," Matviyenko said.

"The fact that Russia stopped this civil war in this way, the fact that Russia has protected and, I am sure, will not allow any more victims from now on, this has great geopolitical, historical and moral significance," she added.

The Federation Council, at an unscheduled meeting on Tuesday, unanimously ratified agreements on friendship, cooperation, and mutual assistance with the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics, whose sovereignty was officially acknowledged by the Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday.