Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin says Moscow will not allow the blocking of the border with Donbas in eastern Ukraine, according to the Russian daily Kommersant.
He also compared the UN peacekeeping mission in Donbas with an "external administration". According to him, Russia is allegedly seeing artificial attempts to introduce "an external administration in the southeast [of Russia] to close down the border." Kommersant wrote.
"The main task of the peacekeepers should be to ensure the security of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission. We see artificial attempts to change this concept toward the introduction of an external administration in the southeast with the closure of the border between Donbas and Russia. There is no way. Russia will never allow this," he said.
In his opinion, Russia will "risk lives" if it closes a section of the border in Donbas.
"I can imagine what will happen if we isolate Donbas residents from the border of moral and humanitarian support, which is now a segment of our border with Luhansk and Donetsk regions [Ukraine's Donbas]. We cannot take such risks," Karasin added.
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