Kiev speaks of “fake news”
Russia: Ukrainian “saboteurs” killed
02/21/2022, 2:44 p.m
First a destroyed Russian border post, then another incident with five Ukrainian dead: Moscow reports two attacks on Russian soil within a few hours. Ukraine speaks of “fake news”. Is Russia looking for an excuse to invade?
According to the Russian army, it has killed five “saboteurs” coming from Ukraine on Russian soil. Russian news agencies, citing the army, reported that the “five people” breached the Russian border and were “eliminated”. In addition, during the morning incident in the Rostov region, two Ukrainian military vehicles tried to cross the border.
The Ukrainian military rejects the reports and speaks of “fake news”. There are no Ukrainian units active in the Rostov region of Russia.
Russian news agencies had previously reported that a Russian border post had been shot at from Ukraine. On Monday morning, “a grenade of an unknown type fired from Ukrainian territory completely destroyed the post of border guards in the Rostov region,” the agencies reported, citing Russia’s FSB secret service, which is also responsible for border protection.
Shortly thereafter, the Ukrainian army declared that the information was not correct; they did not fire a grenade at the posts. “We cannot stop them from producing fake news – but we always emphasize that we are not shooting at civilian infrastructure or at any area in the Rostov region or whatever,” said Ukrainian military spokesman Pavlo Kovalchuk.
Pretext for an attack?
Western officials have been warning for days that Russia could create a pretext for an attack on Ukraine. The situation on the ground is extremely tense, and the statements made by both sides are difficult to verify independently. In frantic international efforts, intensive attempts are being made to prevent a Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Tensions in the Donbass conflict area in eastern Ukraine continue to increase massively. In the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, separatist leader Denis Pushilin called all men to arms to fight Ukrainian government forces. Ukraine has repeatedly stressed that it is not planning an offensive against the pro-Russian separatists. Pushilin, in turn, spoke of massive shelling from the Ukrainian side. This information could not be verified. In Donetsk, two schools, a hospital and a substation were hit, the authorities there said.
Thousands of ceasefire violations
From the regions controlled by pro-Moscow separatists, women and children in particular were brought to Russia in buses and trains. Tens of thousands came to emergency shelters in different parts of Russia. The men had to stay. “I call on the male population, everyone who can hold a weapon, to report to the district military commandos and to stand up for the protection of their families, children, women, mothers and for our fatherland,” said Puschilin.
Observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) recently reported thousands of violations of the agreed ceasefire. Ukraine stressed that the fire would be returned but not attacked. That is not verifiable. Officially, Ukraine has been deviating from an additional agreement to the current ceasefire since autumn. “We have no ban on opening fire. Every commander makes his own decision on the spot,” said the commander of the government troops, Olexander Pavlyuk, in October.