Lavrov Believes Kiev Trying to Trigger Response From Donbass Militia, Get Russia Involved

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov pointed to an escalation of tensions in Ukraine's east and expressed the belief that Kiev is acting in a provocative manner to trigger a response from the local militia and get Russia involved.

"The escalation is quite obvious. There are attempts to create a provocative situation, to cause some kind of response from the militia and probably to get Russia involved in some kind of use of force," Lavrov said on air of Russia-24 broadcaster.

Last week, Ukraine's general staff said that the Ukrainian military used the Bayraktar combat drone for the first time in Donbas. Deploying combat aircraft and remotely-piloted drones along the entire line of contact is prohibited by the Minsk agreements.

In April 2014, the Ukrainian authorities launched a military operation against the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic and Lugansk People's Republic, which declared independence after the coup d'etat in Kiev in February 2014. The issue of resolving the situation in Donbass is being discussed, among other things, during the meetings of the Minsk contact group, which since September 2014 has already adopted three documents regulating steps to de-escalate the conflict.