MOSCOW. Jan 23 (Interfax) - The bus stop bombing in the Donetsk region, in which 15 people were killed, disrupts the Minsk process, Leonid Slutsky, the head of the State Duma committee on CIS affairs, Eurasian integration and liaison with Russians living abroad, said.
"This indicates a disruption of the Minsk process," Slutsky said in the State Duma on Friday.
He extended his condolences to the relatives and loved ones of the bombing victims.
"Who stands to gain? Obviously, it's the overseas forces, which are categorically against the normalization of the relations between the European Union and Russia," the parliamentarian said.
Slutsky said the exacerbation of the situation and new casualties in Donbas were accompanied by other important events, including the disruption of the meetings between the four heads of states in Astana and the last round of the Minsk negotiations.
In addition, Slutsky reiterated that the attack on the bus stop took place before the EU summit and the session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), which will open in Strasbourg on February 26 and which is expected to address the issue of full reinstatement of the powers of the Russian delegation to PACE.
"All these things confirm once again that the conflict in Ukraine is an instrument used by the overseas forces to drive a wedge between the European Union and Russia," Slutsky said.
This instrument is also aimed at preventing the formation of a unified European economic space from Lisbon to Vladivostok, the parliamentarian said.
According to earlier reports, the bombing of the bus stop in Donetsk on January 22 killed 13 people at the scene and two people lied later in hospital.