OREANDA-NEWS. The Minister for the Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine Aleksey Reznikov said about Russia's "main mistake" regarding the conflict in Donbass.

According to him, the aggravation of the situation in the region will lead to toughening of restrictive measures against Moscow by Europe, the United States and Canada, as a result of which Russia's "sanctions immunity" may be undermined.

The minister also noted that he does not believe in a real threat to Ukraine from Russia, since the aggravation of relations is not beneficial for Moscow. According to Reznikov, Russians are most often guided by pragmatic considerations, although "they are often mistaken."

As the Ukrainian minister said, "the main mistake of the Russians is that they have never learned to understand Ukraine."

It is noted that since February the situation in Donbass began to deteriorate: there was an attempt on the life of the battalion commander of the People's Militia of the DPR, Ukrainian security forces fired mortars at Horlivka and the outskirts of Donetsk, and the fighting intensified. The self-proclaimed republics believe that a large-scale offensive is being prepared in Kiev, pulling new forces to the line of contact. The Ukrainian capital partially confirms this information: on February 22, the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Ruslan Khomchak said that the army was working on a scenario of assaults in urban settings.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has repeatedly called on Ukraine to stop sabotaging the implementation of the Minsk agreements and not to shy away from direct dialogue with Donetsk and Lugansk.