Donetsk, Apr 8 - DAN. The attempt to unleash full-scale fighting in Donbass will be fatal for Ukraine, said Dmitry Kozak, Deputy Chief of the Administration of the Russian President, at a meeting with experts of the Institute of World Economy and International Relations (IMEMO) of the Russian Academy of Sciences on Thursday.
“I support the assessments that exist in Ukraine today that the beginning of military action is the beginning of the end of Ukraine,” Kozak said. “It’s a self-inflicted wound, a shot not in the leg but in the head,” said the Kremlin official who is also the political advisor to the Russian president at the “Normandy Four” talks.
He also commented on the recent statement by Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky who said that Ukraine’s membership of NATO was the only way to end the conflict in Donbass.
“Where’s NATO, where’s the conflict in Ukraine, where’s even the logic? It is also the beginning of the breakup of Ukraine if they try to settle it in this manner,” Kozak said.
Earlier at the meeting, he said that the conflict in Donbass could be settled within a year if Kiev honoured the commitments it had taken within the framework of the Minsk talks.*jk