Donetsk, Feb 21 - DAN. Donetsk People’s Republic Deputy Foreign Minister Natalia Mikhailova took part in the opening ceremony of an international practice forum on Donbass in Lugansk, the DPR Foreign Ministry press service reported.

“Lugansk hosted an international practice forum and the Livadia Club’s visiting session titled “Donbass in the Centre of Geopolitical Transformation.” Representatives of the DPR, the LPR, Russia and Belarus took part in the event,” the press service said.

DPR Deputy Foreign Minister Natalia Mikhailova read a report addressing “challenges facing the modern Donbas in the light of geopolitical transformation.” She also read DPR Head Denis Pushilin's greetings to the forum participants.

“Donbass had the honour of becoming an outpost of the Russian World on the way of western expansion. It is no secret that Ukraine is a bridgehead of the forces that are trying to destroy everything which is dear to us and which makes the basics of our life,” Pushilin said.  “We are the first line of defence, but we wouldn’t have made it without the help from the Russian World.”

The forum participants included DPR and LPR officials and parliamentarians and Russian and Belarussian scientists and politicians.*jk*pp