PETROPAVLOVSK-KAMCHATSKY. April 12 (Interfax) - Russian presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov has ruled out the possibility of war against Ukraine despite the tough statements that Moscow has been making recently.
"Naturally, nobody's going to move toward war. Nobody is allowing for the possibility of such a war," Peskov said in an interview with Pavel Zarubin for the Moscow. Kremlin. Putin show on the Rossiya 1 (VGTRK) television channel.
"Likewise, nobody is accepting the possibility of civil war in Ukraine," Peskov said. "Russia has never been a party to this conflict. But Russia has always said that it would not remain indifferent to the fate of Russian-speaking people living in the country's southeast," he said.
Moscow will be 'explaining patiently' its stance on Donbas despite Kyiv's perseverance to present Russia as a conflicting party, he said.
"Indeed, it is with an admirable perseverance that the Ukrainian side tries to present Russia as a conflicting party. This is not true. Russia is not a conflicting party. Russia makes every effort to help settle this conflict. And we will untiringly continue to explain that," he said.
Peskov went on to note that all the Normandy Four sides, except Ukraine, understand this in general. "But to them, Ukraine is probably like an enfant terrible, yes, that kind of little disaster who you can never throw away, but who gives you so much headache. This is probably something like that," he said.
Describing the Donbas situation, Peskov noted that "this situation is associated with increasing activity, provocative actions on the part of the Ukrainian Armed Forces."
"In other words, provocations take place and prompt some return fire. As tension persists, and no de-escalation happens, and the tension is high, such provocations may set the fire of civil war inside the intra-Ukrainian conflict at any moment. So we're constantly talking about our concern," Peskov said.