KIEV, December 5. /TASS/. The government of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) has received intelligence information that the Ukrainian armed forces may use chemical weapons in the conflict zone, a DPR negotiator told the Contact Group meeting in Minsk late on Tuesday.

"Donetsk People’s Republic envoy [to the Contact Group on Ukrainian reconciliation] noted that the republic’s leadership fears more provocations on behalf of the Ukrainian side, because, according to information obtained by intelligence services, the Ukrainian military command may use chemical weapons in the zone of conflict on both sides of the contact line in order to blame the [self-proclaimed] republics for that and, therefore, receive another pretext for escalating tensions," the Donetsk News Agency quoted a statement by the DPR Foreign Ministry as saying.

The DPR envoy to the Contact Group, Natalya Nikonorova, also said that possibility of the use of chemical weapons in eastern Ukraine has increased in the context of the Kiev government’s latest provocations in the Sea of Azov.