Kremlin pledges to protect Donbas population if hostilities resume and 'Srebrenica-type catastrophe potentially repeats itself'
MOSCOW. April 9 (Interfax) - Russia will take measures to protect its citizens if a war breaks out in Donbas and a threat of mass civilian casualties emerges in that region, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
"The situation on the contact line in Ukraine has been extremely unstable. The dynamics of this situation and the dynamics of behavior of the Ukrainian side create a threat of the resumption of largescale hostilities," Peskov said.
"The Ukrainian side - and this is evidenced by a variety of statements - does not completely reject the idea of solving its own problem with the southeast of Ukraine by military means," Peskov said.
"If the hostilities resume and if there is a possibility that the Srebrenica-type catastrophe might repeat itself - and President Putin has said so earlier - not a single country in the world will stand aside. All countries, including Russia, will be taking measures to prevent such tragedies from happening again," Peskov said in response to the question when Russia would take measures to protect its citizens.
There was a follow-up question from Ukrainian journalists as to what exactly Russia would do under such circumstances. "If Srebrenica repeats itself in southeastern Ukraine, all countries of the world, all civilized countries of the world will do everything they can to prevent a catastrophe from happening," he said.
This is necessary to prevent mass civilian casualties, Peskov said.
As to why Moscow was drawing a parallel between the conflicts in Ukraine and Yugoslavia, Peskov said, "On the basis of uncontrolled actions of certain units of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, on the basis of the prevalence of nationalist sentiment, on the basis of the incitement of absolute hatred for the population of the self-proclaimed republics of Donbas."
"This is fraught with a repetition of the actions you and I have just spoken about," Peskov said.