Ukrainian troops have been bolstered with arms supplies from Western nations and “are now prepositioned for combat and ready to take Donbass by force,” Head of the Donetsk People’s Republic Denis Pushilin claimed in a statement on Friday, referring to his region and fellow breakaway entity, the Lugansk People’s Republic, by their collective name.
The Donbass authorities are expecting President Volodymyr Zelensky to order an offensive “in the nearest future.” Their military forces are prepared to fight, but civilians in rebel-controlled areas are at risk of being caught in the crossfire, the head of the Donetsk People’s Republic warned.
“That is why starting today, February 18, a mass evacuation of people to the Russian Federation has been organized,” he said, adding that vulnerable groups like women, children, and the elderly would be given priority.
Several hundred thousand people plan to leave the Donetsk People’s Republic to Russia’s region of Rostov, the Interfax news agency cited a source in the self-declared republic’s parliament as saying.
Pushilin said Russian officials in the neighboring Rostov Region are expecting an inflow of evacuees and will provide them with what they need. There will be conditions at border crossings to expedite the process, he added. He urged people “to heed to the warning and take the right decision,” saying that the relocation would be temporary and would save lives.
The statement was released after OSCE observers deployed to eastern Ukraine to monitor the situation along the line dividing government-controlled parts of the country and territories held by the rebel forces reported a surge in hostilities this week.
Russia voiced alarm earlier on Friday over a sharp increase in shelling in the region known as the Donbass.
This morning at 5.32 a.m., the Ukrainian army began shelling the LPR with 120 mm and 82 mm mortar shells, rocket launchers, grenade launchers and heavy machine guns. In just half an hour, the Ukrainian army violated the ceasefire five times and fired 80 rounds into the territory of the LPR.
Then it was the turn of the DPR to begin intensive shelling by the Ukrainian army for five hours. In total, in one day, the Ukrainian army fired more than 500 rounds of ammunition at the two Donbass republics, including 15 artillery shells of 122 mm, and 193 mortar shells of 120 mm and 82 mm, in 43 ceasefire violations, spread across the entire front line from the south to the north.
In the LPR, 122mm artillery fire by the Ukrainian army against the village of Nikolayevka damaged four homes and an oil production plant.
In the DPR, Ukrainian army fire injured a civilian in Staromikhailovka and damaged two homes on the outskirts of Donetsk.
Video of woman with shrapnel wound to the head in Staromikhailovka and photos of damaged houses on the outskirts of Donetsk, are provided by citizens to the DPR representation in the Joint Ceasefire Control and Coordination Centre (JCCC).
Faced with the danger to civilians, the DPR and LPR people’s militia responded, resulting in casualties among Ukrainian soldiers. The opportunity for Ukraine to mount a poorly conceived false-flag operation, trying to make it appear that the LPR people’s militia had fired on a kindergarten in Novaya Kondachovka, in the Ukrainian-controlled area of Lugansk oblast.
The problem is that there are huge inconsistencies in this story. As the RPL People’s Militia noted, contrary to what many believed, it was not the western but the eastern side of the school that was hit, which rules out any possibility that the People’s Militia could have hit the school in a straight line (as implied by the clear shape of the hole in the wall).
If we add that Bellingcat of course immediately pounced on this information to prove that the RPL is guilty, taken up by the Western press, there is little doubt that this is a complete falsification.
In a video filmed by a resident of Novaya Kondachovka this morning, outgoing fire can be clearly heard, not far from where the person filming lives. Clearly, the Ukrainian soldiers were firing from the residential area, surely hoping that the LPR’s popular militia would respond, thus causing destruction to homes and civilian infrastructure. As a reminder, using civilians as human shields is a war crime!
As we can see, no sooner have the Russian soldiers stationed near Ukraine for exercises returned to their bases, and already the Ukrainian army is heavily bombing the Donbass republics, while seeking to blame the escalation of the situation on the DPR and the LPR, Christelle Néant concludes.
Provocations To Start A War? – Donbass Target Of Heavy Shelling By Kiev’s Forces
