MOSCOW – Russian President Vladimir Putin has said he hopes Ukrainian forces will not return to the so-called Donbas gray zones.
“Hopefully, they will not return to the ‘gray zones’, although we have heard certain politicians saying that the National Guard and the police should be deployed to the zones left by the forces,” Putin said at the Russia Calling! VTB Capital Investment Forum.
Kyiv “has taken certain positive steps. I mean the disengagement of forces and hardware in two populated localities, although, as the military has reported, Ukrainian attacks are ongoing,” Putin said.
He added that the deployment of Ukrainian National Guard troops along the line of contact would worsen the situation and prompt the separatists to do the same.
“Surely, some law and order has to be maintained in those territories. But we know very well that the Ukrainian National Guard was largely composed from so-called nationalist battalions. If they come back, nothing good will come of it, because there will be an immediate symmetrical response on the part of the militias from the Donetsk and Luhansk people’s republics,” Putin said.
He said he hoped this would not happen.
“If something does happen, then only through coordination between the parties. And the parties to the conflict are the Kyiv government and representatives of Donbas, in this particular case the DPR and LPR,” Putin said.
Asked about the future of Russian-Ukrainian relations and whether they could improve, Putin said, “This will depend to a significant extent on the Ukrainian side.”
