MOSCOW, February 3. /TASS/. Kremlin calls on all countries to exert pressure on Kiev so that the Ukrainian authorities stopped their attacks on the Donbass region, Russian Presidential Spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, told reporters on Friday. He expressed the hope that the militias will have enough strength to rebuff the attacks of the Ukrainian armed forces.

"The main thing now is to persuade and force Kiev to give up its criminal adventures that could undermine the Minsk agreements," Peskov said, adding that Russia can "only make efforts on the political and diplomatic front" in this regard.

When asked whether the Donbass militias have enough ammunition to repel attacks by the Ukrainian armed forces, Peskov said that "counting the ammunition is not Kremlin’s competence." "We hope that they will have enough ammunition to respond to Ukraine’s aggressive actions," he added. 

Crimea 

Russia will continue to use substantiated argumentation to bring its position on Ukraine to the notice of the international community, Dmitry Peskov explained: 

"No doubt, we do not agree with such a formulation [by Washington’s UN Ambassador Nikki Haley about Russia’s allegedly aggressive actions in east Ukraine]."

"And we will continue to bring consistently and with substantiated argumentation our position to all the participants in UN Security Council sessions and to our other partners, including to the US permanent representative," the Kremlin spokesman said.

Commenting on Haley’s words that "Crimea-related sanctions will remain in place until Russia returns control over the peninsula to Ukraine," the Kremlin spokesman said: "we have never indulged in excessive optimism [with regard to the issue of sanctions] and we spoke about that from the very beginning."

Washington’s UN Ambassador Nikki Haley spoke for the first time at an open session of the UN Security Council on Thursday. The American diplomat asserted that Crimea was a part of Ukraine and the US sanctions would not be lifted until Russia returned control of Crimea to Kiev.

She also unsubstantially accused Moscow of "aggression," "occupation" and "military intervention," adding that the Ukraine developments required denouncement of Russia’s actions. The same position was outlined by her predecessor Samantha Power. However, Haley said at the same time that her country was seeking to improve relations with Moscow.