MOSCOW, February 16. /TASS/. It is highly probable that Kiev will embark on a combat operation in Donbass, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday.

"The attention of our interlocutors is drawn in every possible way to this dangerous concentration [of the Ukrainian troops at the engagement line in Donbass] and the attention of our interlocutors is drawn to the fact that a military operation and an attempt to resolve problems with the use of force in the southeast [of Ukraine] are quite real. This probability is high and real and, unfortunately, all of us and the entire world were witnesses when Kiev unleashed a military operation in Donbass, that is, it started a civil war in the country," the Russian presidential spokesman said.

Despite weeks of intensive international negotiations on de-escalation in Ukraine, the tension between Kiev and Moscow is not abating, Peskov pointed out.

"The high level of danger [of Ukraine attacking the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics] persists," the Kremlin press secretary said, adding that this probability was not subsiding.