“camp to be blown up”
Moscow: Ukrainians plan poison gas attack near Kharkiv
4/6/2022 9:33 p.m
In a disturbingly concrete way, Moscow warns of an allegedly imminent use of chemical weapons in the embattled East. In a town near Kharkiv, the Ukrainians allegedly wanted to detonate chlorine gas. Meanwhile, the government in Kyiv is urging residents in Luhansk and Donbass to flee.
Russia has accused Ukraine of planning a chemical “provocation” and blaming Moscow for it. Ukrainian special forces mined a storage facility with 120 tons of chlorine in the eastern Ukrainian city of Pervomaiskyi, said Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov. “This camp is about to be blown up to accuse Russia of allegedly creating a chemical catastrophe that is causing the deaths of local residents.” It was “confirmed information,” Konashenkov said, without presenting any evidence. Pervomayskyj is located in the south of Kharkiv
Russia has repeatedly accused Ukraine of planning so-called false flag actions. On the other hand, there is great concern in the West that Russian troops could use chemical weapons in Ukraine. Konashenkov said Russian forces had attacked a Ukrainian fuel depot in the eastern Ukrainian region of Kharkov “with high-precision” missiles. In addition, military equipment and weapons were destroyed at a train station in the area. According to Ukrainian information, the Kharkiv region and the city of the same name were the target of numerous Russian attacks on Wednesday night.
In the eastern Ukrainian region of Donetsk, a command post of the Ukrainian army and a “nationalist” base near Novohrodivka were the target of the Russian attacks, Konashenkov said. Russia describes the Ukrainian units predominantly as “nationalists” and “neo-Nazis”. Many experts see this as a pretext for the attack, which Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin justified with the “denazification” of Ukraine.
Kyiv warns civilians in the east: “Everyone faces death”
Fearing a new Russian offensive in eastern Ukraine, the government in Kyiv urgently called on people in the Luhansk, Donetsk and Kharkiv regions to flee. “Get yourself to safety while you still have the option,” said Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk, according to media reports. “It has to be now, because later people will be shot at and threatened with death. There’s nothing they can do about it then and we won’t be able to help them.”
The head of the regional administration of the Luhansk region, Serhiy Hajday, said in a video message that Russia is currently further consolidating armed forces in the region. He expects to attempt larger attacks in the next three to four days. Russia has been at war with neighboring Ukraine since February 24. Moscow announced last week that it would significantly reduce the attacks on Kyiv, but would instead focus on the Donbass.