Russia will defend Donbas, should Ukraine use military force

If Ukraine chooses to use military force to resolve the crisis in Donbas, Russia will defend the region and the people living in it, Sergei Tsekov, a Senator of the Federation Council said.

This is not a likely scenario, though, because the Ukrainian Armed Forces are unlikely to proceed to such a dramatic development of events.

"Of course, we will defend Donbas. There is nothing to talk about here, no other variants can be possible. This question shall not be even discussed, there can be no other options. I believe that this restrains Ukraine to a certain extent from resolving the problem by force, or they would make such attempts otherwise again. Even though they are getting ready and concentrating tрeir forces now, I do not think something like this could happen,” Tsekov said, lenta.ru reports.

The senator did not specify, whether Russia would go beyond Donbas in case of a military scenario.

The course of drawing Ukraine into NATO with the subsequent emergence of missiles at the Russian borders creates unacceptable threats to Russia's security and provokes serious military risks, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.