MOSCOW, March 12. /TASS/. If Ukraine’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, fails to adopt a resolution on a special status of Donbas, as is required by the Minsk accords, the Donetsk People’s Republic may interpret this as a clear sign Kiev is determined to resolve the conflict by force, the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic’s representative in the Contact Group, Denis Pushilin, said at a meeting of the committee of public support for the people of Ukraine’s south-east at Russia’s Federation Council on Thursday.
"It is very important that this fact must be put on record. Likewise important is the response from that document’s guarantor countries and their recommendations to us as to what is to be done in this situation," he said. "In fact, the true causes of Ukraine’s procrastinations in settling the political and economic issues will become clear to us. It will be evidence of preparations for another offensive against our territory," he said.
"We are prepared for everything, but we shall do our utmost to avoid a military solution of the issue," Pushilin said.
The self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic’s representative in the Contact Group, Vladislav Deinego, said for his part that the self-proclaimed republics have a "handy political tool" — an opportunity to appeal to the Contact Group.
"There is the Normandy Quartet, which is the guarantor of the signed agreements, of preventing such situations and an instrument of taking measures to ensure the situation should stay within the expected bounds," Deinego said.