Moscow is concerned about tragic developments in southeastern Ukraine and does not rule out that the situation will deteriorate further, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said at a briefing on Thursday, commenting on reports about the Ukrainian military's offensive operations and attempt to seize the Staromaryevka settlement located on the line of contact with the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR).
"In recent days, we have seen alarming - although it's not the right word - developments in southeastern Ukraine, which border on tragedy. All this points to a rise in tensions in the conflict zone," Zakharova emphasized. "Given the circumstances, we don't rule out that the situation will deteriorate further," she added.
Zakharova stressed that the Ukrainian military was deliberately violating the additional measures to ensure the current ceasefire in the region that had been adopted in July 2020. "It should be clearly understood that they deliberately opt for raising tensions though the situation is already difficult enough and ignore requests to ensure the ceasefire that Donbass representatives file through the Joint Center for Control and Coordination," the Russian diplomat noted.
On October 27, DPR head Denis Pushilin said that the Ukrainian Armed Forces had seized the Staromaryevka settlement located in the buffer zone along the southern part of the disengagement line between the Kiev-controlled areas and the DPR. The day before, the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces announced that a Bayraktar unmanned aerial vehicle had for the first time been employed in Donbass. Notably, according to the additional measures to control the ceasefire, the use of drones is expressly prohibited along the line of contact.
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