Ukrainian Army combat engineers prepare foucade bombs for the destruction at Donbas region, Ukraine, on June 12, 2014. (Xinhua/SIPA)
MOSCOW, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- Ukraine's law on the reintegration of the volatile Donbas region could lead to serious escalation of the conflict in the country's southeast, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Saturday.
The controversial law on the return of the conflict-hit region under Ukraine's sovereignty shows that Kiev wants to settle the situation only by force, the ministry said.
As the law came into force on Saturday, the ministry said in a statement, "Kiev has finally confirmed its commitment to a military solution to the conflict in the southeast of Ukraine."
On Tuesday, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko signed the law, which was passed last month by parliament, defining the areas controlled by pro-independence rebels as "temporarily occupied territories".
Despite Kiev's claim that the law does not violate its international obligations, the Russian Foreign Ministry said the Ukrainian president has practically abandoned the Minsk agreements and untied the hands of the "war party" by signing the law.
"There is no direct dialogue with the authorities of the unrecognized republics, de-escalation of the confrontation, and search for a peaceful political settlement," the ministry said.
"On the contrary, the document creates conditions for the forcible seizure of non-controlled territories in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions by Kiev," it added.
The Minsk agreements, designed to end the conflict in Donbas peacefully,
were reached in September 2014 and February 2015.
The conflict in the eastern Donbas region started in April 2014, after government forces launched offensives to regain control of the cities and towns seized by armed groups which declared independence from Kiev.
