Ukraine can close border with Russia

• 14.04.2014, 15:32

Ukraine can resort to closing the border with Russia.

The statement was made by the country's deputy foreign minister Danylo Lubkivsky at a briefing in Kyiv today.

Ukraine has all necessary instruments to do it, a correspondent of UNIAN reports quotes the official.

“Today we see that the security situation in the east and south [of Ukraine] is strained. We warn Russia against crossing the red line and call to recall its special agents and stop provocations. This is our main call, our main demand,” he said.

Lubkivsky noted the Ukrainian Armed Forces would take appropriate measures, and other instruments, including diplomatic ones, would be used to solve the situation in case of a direct military intervention.

However, he said Ukraine hoped for a peaceful solution to the conflict.

According the preliminary agreement reached last week, representatives of Russia, the US, Ukraine and the EU are to meet in Geneva on April 17.

Armed Russian militants began to provoke clashes in eastern Ukraine this weekend.

On April 13, Russian FM Sergei Lavrov said in a phone call with US Secretary of State John Kerry the four-party meeting to solve the Ukrainian crisis would be disrupted if force were used against residents of Ukraine's southeast.

Kerry warned the Russian foreign minister Russia would face new sanctions if it didn't take steps to de-escalate the situation in eastern Ukraine.