KIEV, December 23. /TASS/. Ukraine will not dare to launch a new military operation in Donbass due to its armed forces being not ready, however, it is possible in the future, Ruslan Bortnik, Director of the Ukrainian Institute of Politics, told TASS on Thursday commenting on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s remarks that Kiev may be preparing a new use-of-force scenario.

"We don’t see any special preparations by Ukraine for a third military operation because Kiev realizes perfectly well that a new military operation means, most likely, a new defeat and a new political crisis," he thinks.

That said, the expert did not exclude that in the future Ukraine may attempt to resolve the Donbass conflict by military means. "Overall, Ukraine’s armed forces are consistently developing in order to reach a level of capability of resolving such problems - the Donbass problems, - including by military means. It is not in vain that Ukraine talks about one of the ‘Croatian scenarios" - with the use of force - as one of the possible ways of attaining its goals," the expert noted. "It is obvious that in the near future Ukraine won’t launch such an operation but in the future this operation is possible, after the quality of the armed forces is improved," the expert added.

Earlier on Thursday, Putin at his annual press conference stated that Ukraine may be preparing another military operation against Donbass while Western countries were urging Russia in advance not get involved in the looming conflict. He reiterated that Ukrainian authorities have already undertaken two attempts to advance in Donbass which ended in failure.