US Special Representative for Ukraine Kurt Volker has said he is ready to visit Donetsk and Luhansk after they return under Ukraine's control and are liberated from militants.
He was speaking at a briefing in Slovyansk, according to 112 Ukrayina TV.
"I would be happy to visit Donetsk and Luhansk once peace and Ukrainian control are restored there, and everything is part of Ukraine again," he was quoted as saying.
He said that he did not recognize the self-proclaimed separatist Donetsk and Luhansk people's republics.
"What I do not want to do is to give any reason to legitimize these so-called 'political formations', so-called 'people's republics' which should never have existed at all," he said.
A day earlier, Volker met Ukrainian Joint Forces Lt-Gen Serhiy Nayev.