Humanitarian situation in Donbas would worsen with the withdrawal of representatives of Russia from the Joint Center for Control and Coordination (JCCC), and officials from Kyiv would not hold direct talks with militants, Deputy Minister of Temporarily Occupied Territories and Internally Displaced Persons Hryhoriy Tuka has said.

"It is pointless to stay in the Center without Russians for Ukraine. These steps made by Russia unilaterally would lead to a deterioration of the humanitarian situation in Donbas," he told Interfax-Ukraine on Monday.

Tuka recalled that the JCCC function also included negotiating temporary ceasefire for the repair of infrastructure facilities affected by shelling.

"After the Russians have left the JCCC, we are actually forced to come into contact with the so-called heads of the ORDLO, which we naturally will never agree to. This would lead to the worsening of the situation. I predict that in the coming days this will lead to "accidental" selling of, for example, the Donetsk filtering station. We would be forced to legalize the leaders," he said.

The deputy minister believes that Russia has been preparing for this step for a long period of time.

"Putin has repeatedly stated that Kyiv needs to come into contact with the so-called representatives of Donbas. These are political statements, but since the summer of the JCCC representatives' statements have looked like jokes: for example, someone did not give honor to someone... Step by step they looked for an excuse and did what they wanted to do," Tuka said.