If the Russian Federation recognizes the so-called "Donetsk People's Republic" and "Luhansk People's Republic", it will directly violate the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine and this will be a pretext for a potential invasion, Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov has said.

"If tomorrow or the day after tomorrow they recognize these terrorist groups that call themselves republics there, they will directly violate the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine. This will already be a violation of generally recognized norms of international law, and this will mean that, in fact, this is a pretext, as they say in English, for a potential invasion through some kind of introduction of some kind of peacekeepers or something like that, as they will call it," Reznikov said at a briefing in Kyiv on Monday.

He added that in this case, the international community would have every right to impose sanctions against the Russian Federation.