Donetsk, Apr 9 - DAN. The fight against the novel coronavirus infection has brought about changes in Donbass: while Kiev was strengthening the state border with Donetsk, the relations between the Donetsk People’s Republic and Moscow reached a new level, DPR Head Denis Pushilin said on Thursday.

“If we take a detached view - and it’s my personal opinion - we see that we actually have a border with Ukraine. To us, it’s another country. Regardless of their political statements, they think that we no longer belong to them,” Pushilin said in the course of a video conference of the Donetsk Republic social movement ‘s Healthy Movement Headquarters.

“We never had and never will have any prerequisites to ask Ukraine for help".

In this situation, relations with Russia have reached a new level. "We now have a feeling that we are one of the Russian regions. Our specialists, doctors and virologists go to Russia for training and consultations, we are guided by the Russian Health Ministry’s recommendations and we get test kits and consumables from Russia. We are taking measures with an eye to Russian regions and their lockdown measures. So, it’s obvious that the crisis is puttning everything in its place," Pushilin said.

At present, it is no longer possible to stop the integration process with Moscow, “even the coronavirus cannot do it,” he added.*jk