Russian troops unlikely to depart southern Ukraine: Ambassador

• ‘We are going to liberate all of the Donbas,’ says the Russian ambassador

Russia is unlikely to withdraw from Ukraine's southern coast and will defeat Ukrainian soldiers in the eastern Donbas area, Russia's ambassador to London told Reuters.

"We are going to liberate all of the Donbas," Andrei Kelin told Reuters in an interview in his London residence.

"Of course, it is difficult to predict the withdrawal of our forces from the southern part of Ukraine because we have already experienced that after withdrawal, provocations start and all the people are being shot and all that."

Kelin said that Ukraine will have to choose between striking a peace deal with Russia or "continue slipping down this hill" to ruin.

Earlier on Thursday Russian President Putin called attention to the fact that the West was the one who started the war in Donbas by backing Ukraine's coup in 2014.

“We are told that we started a war in the Donbas. No, it was unleashed by this very collective West, organizing and supporting an unconstitutional armed coup in Ukraine, and then encouraging and justifying genocide against people in the Donbas,” Putin said.

Picture Credits: AP

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