Putin: Russia Will Analyze Situation in Donbass and Take Right Decision

Moscow will take the right decision on Donbass, President Putin said.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Russia will analyze the situation in Donbass to take the right decision, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday.

"We see that the problems there did not decrease, but are partially increasing. We shall analyze the situation to make a timely decision which will correspond to the unfolding situation," Putin told reporters.

Russia will do everything possible to support the people suffering from military conflict in Donbass, he said.

"The tragedy is enormous. We will do everything to minimize the damage there. You know our general stand, but we will do everything to support the people there regardless of any external factors," Putin told reporters after his annual "Direct Line" Q&A session.

The Donbass conflict erupted in April 2014 as a local counter-reaction to the West-sponsored Maidan coup in Kiev that had toppled President Viktor Yanukovych in February. Residents of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions held independence referendums and proclaimed the People's Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk. Kiev has since been conducting a military operation, encountering stiff local resistance.

In February 2015, Kiev forces and Donbass independence supporters signed a peace agreement in the Belarusian capital of Minsk. The deal stipulates a full ceasefire, weapons withdrawal from the line of contact in Donbass, as well as constitutional reforms that would give a special status to the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics. Despite the agreement brokered by the Normandy Four states (Russia, France, Germany and Ukraine), the ceasefire regime is regularly violated, with both sides accusing each other of multiple breaches, undermining the terms of the accord.

According to the latest data of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), a total of over 10,000 people were killed and some 24,000 injured from the start of the conflict.

"We really hope that the Kiev leadership would be smart enough and would have enough common sense and responsible approach to the issue in order to implement the agreements, which were reached as a result of a very hard work, bearing in mind first of all the Minsk agreements. If they did not exist, it would be much worse. These are quite obvious things," Putin said.