MOSCOW. March 10 (Interfax) - Russia will take all necessary measures to prevent another flare-up of the conflict in the east of Ukraine, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko told Interfax.
"We are closely following the situation and will take all measures, including at the diplomatic level, to reduce the risk of this sort of thing happening as much as possible," Rudenko said.
At the same time, the deputy foreign minister declined to comment on concerns voiced by some experts that the latest deterioration of the situation in the region might cause the conflict there to break out anew.
Ongoing tensions in relations between Russia and Europe are not affecting the Minsk process for settling the situation in Donbas, he said.
"We are continuing a normal negotiating process via different channels, between the Foreign Ministries and between the presidents' aides. We do not currently see any problems in this sphere," Rudenko said.
It was reported on Tuesday that the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) in Ukraine recorded a sharp rise in the number of ceasefire violations in Donbas on March 8.
According to the SMM's report, the mission recorded 105 ceasefire breaches in the Donetsk region, including 83 explosions of unknown origin, the OSCE said on its website.
The mission also registered 20 ceasefire violations in the Luhansk region.