Envoy to UK warns Russian troop withdrawal from southern Ukraine would spark provocations - Russian Politics & Diplomacy - TASS

If Russian forces pulled out of southern Ukraine that would trigger another spiral of violence in the region, Russian Ambassador to the United Kingdom Andrey Kelin said on Friday.

We are going to liberate all of the Donbass," he vowed in an interview with Reuters. "Of course, it is difficult to predict the withdrawal of our forces from the southern part of Ukraine because we have already experience that after withdrawal, provocations start,” he noted, further elaborating that everyone starts getting “shot.”

According to Kelin, sooner or later Kiev will have to decide whether to reach a peace agreement with Russia or continue sliding down a slippery slope to ruin.

• Touching on the topic of Western arms supplies to Ukraine, the Russian ambassador warned about Moscow’s inevitable response in case of escalation. "If the flow of weapons is organized in such a way that it endangers our strategic situation, our defense, we will have to take serious measures against that," he maintained.

He also said that the British authorities had demonstrated little interest in the fate of UK citizens who were taken prisoner in Donbass. In his words, there have been no mediation or release requests.