VIENNA, June 02. /ITAR-TASS/. The Kiev authorities' continuing military operation in the east of Ukraine only intensifies contradictions between the two parties to the conflict, said Andrey Kelin, Russia's ambassador to the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

“It is well known from the experience of conflicts on the post-Soviet space that every day of military confrontation only deepens the rift and intensifies divisions between the two sides, who become more and more involved in the conflict,” Kelin said.

“The longer the operation continues, the deeper the rift will get, the less flexible the parties’ positions will become and the more difficult it will be to bridge the gap afterwards,” he said.