MOSCOW, December 6./TASS/. Tensions around Ukraine can be removed only if Kiev gives up on its ideas to solve the problem of Donbass through the use of force, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Channel One on Monday.
"The crisis situation with Ukraine" will be discussed at talks between the Russian and US presidents, Vladimir Putin and Joe Biden, on December 7, he noted.
"We heard a statement from the US president that he has concrete proposals on Ukraine for the video conference - obviously [proposals] on the settlement of the Ukrainian crisis are implied. This is important. I think that President Putin will listen with great attention to these proposals, and it will be possible to understand to which extent they can ease tensions," Peskov said.
"There is only one way to defuse tensions - to understand how to ensure against the possible intentions of Kiev to solve the Donbass problem through force," he added. The spokesman drew attention to "an aggressive and hostile rhetoric coming from Europe’s capital cities" and from Washington on the situation around Ukraine. "We see clearly deliberate leaks in Western, as we say Anglo-Saxon media, which publicize various plans of Russia’s alleged invasion of Ukraine," the spokesman said.
He reiterated that Putin had "an absolutely clearly formulated position" as to the importance of launching talks on the system of guarantees that "cannot be unilateral." "This is a two-way road, clear, but at least this is a concrete initiative," the spokesman stressed.