Ukraine’s Severing of Diplomatic Relations with Russia to Harm Both People: Kremlin

"If such a decision (to sever diplomatic relations with Russia) is made (by Ukraine) this time, it will complicate the situation and, what is still more important, it will harm the interests of people in Ukraine and Russia," Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the media on Wednesday, TASS news agency reported.

He acknowledged that such a decision was certainly "Ukraine’s sovereign affair," but at the same time recalled that Kiev in recent years "made quite a few steps that had the most negative effects on settling the conflict in the southeast of the country."

Peskov avoided answering the question who in that case might serve as a mediator between Moscow and Kiev, adding that it would be a "hypothetical discussion."

Earlier, some mass media said the bill on the reintegration of Donbass the Ukrainian parliament was considering had been complemented by an amendment on the severing of diplomatic relations with Russia. However, the chief of the parliamentary committee on security said that the Verkhovna Rada had no powers to terminate diplomatic relations with other countries and no such amendments to the bill on the reintegration of Donbass had been introduced. Parliament member Ivan Vinnik, the rumored author of the amendments, denied such claims in an interview to the television channel 112.Ukraine. Vinnik said that such an amendment could not have been made at least because the deadline for making such proposals had expired.