REUTERS

Ukrainian Deputy Minister for temporarily occupied territories and internally displaced persons George Tuka has said establishing a lasting peace in the east of Ukraine may require decades.

Read alsoTuka comments on interior minister's plan for Donbas de-occupation

"In the perception of the vast majority of citizens, peace is a ceasefire. And there is such a more professional term as a lasting peace. And building sustainable peace may takes decades, since we have received serious wounds," he told Ukrainian TV Channel 5.

"First of all, it's not about destroyed infrastructure. Neither is it about human losses, though it may hurt victims' families. One person has been killed and many people around him or her have got moral, emotional, psychological traumas. That's what it's about. And it will take many years for these wounds to heal," Tuka said.

As UNIAN reported earlier, Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov on April 16 said he had a plan for the return of the occupied territory of Donbas to Ukraine. It is called the "tactics of small steps, which everyone applauds." In his words, a law on collaboration and amnesty should be passed to get the occupied areas in Donetsk and Luhansk regions reintegrated. He also claims it will not be possible to reintegrated the entire uncontrolled area at once even if a UN peacekeeping mission is deployed there.