OTTAWA, February 18. /TASS/. Canada’s Foreign Minister Melanie Joly’s claims of Russia’s alleged military activity in Donbass cause deep disappointment and have nothing in common with the actual state of affairs, a statement by the Russian Embassy in Ottawa made available to TASS said.

"We strongly reject the February 17 statement on the Twitter account of Canada's Foreign Minister Melanie Joly on ‘unprovoked Russian military activity in the Donbas region of Ukraine’ and the ‘clear effort by Russia to escalate the crisis’," the embassy said. "Such statements cause deep disappointment. They have nothing in common with reality and aim to distract attention from the aggressive policy of the Kiev regime which conducts a years-long war against its own people and sabotages the implementation of the February 12, 2015 Minsk Package of Measures, approved by Resolution 2202 of the UN Security Council and mandatory for all states."

The embassy emphasized that "the internal conflict in eastern Ukraine does not have a military solution," while "the only way to peace is making Ukraine’s authorities sit down at the negotiating table with the representatives of Donetsk and Lugansk." "The Canadian government has the opportunity to use its influence for this. It is not possible to achieve peace in Ukraine by unfounded anti-Russian rhetoric. This should be obvious to everyone," the Russian embassy concluded.

Earlier on Thursday, the Canadian top diplomat assessed the recent events in Donbass on Twitter basically accusing Russia of military activity in the region.

The situation at the line of engagement in eastern Ukraine escalated on Thursday morning. The Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics (DPR and LPR) reported the most intensive shelling on the part of the Ukrainian army over the past several months. There is no information on casualties yet, one civilian was wounded, the shelling damaged a number of civilian infrastructure facilities. The escalation coincided with Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky’s working visit to the military operation zone in Donbass. Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the Kremlin is monitoring the situation and considers it "extremely dangerous" due to provocations by the Ukrainian side.

Since July 27, 2020, a package of additional measures to ensure a ceasefire has been formally in effect in Donbass. The document, among other things, bans the use of weapons, the stationing of heavy armaments in populated localities, engineering works at positions and the launching of drones except those belonging to OSCE observers.