“Donetsk shelling”: first exchange of fire on the Russia-Ukraine border

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The Ukrainian army claimed this morning (Thursday) that Russian-backed forces fired shells at the village of Luhansk, hitting a kindergarten. There were no casualties in the incident. At the same time, the Reuters news agency reported that shelling was heard in the area of ​​Donetsk airport and the village of Alnovka in eastern Ukraine. Earlier today, Russia accused Ukraine of firing at separatist groups on its territory.

The Russian news agency, RIA, reported that Ukrainian forces were the first to open fire when representatives of the Luhansk People’s Republic, a group of rebels allegedly supported by the Russians, claimed that the Ukrainian army had opened fire on them and used artillery, grenades and machine guns. “Ukraine’s military forces have grossly violated the ceasefire, using heavy weapons,” Luhansk Oblast officials said.

In addition, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov announced today that Russia will send its response to the United States regarding the security guarantees it has requested. Lavrov announced that the response will be made public, and as part of it, Russia will demand not to allow Ukraine to join NATO. To grant to Russia.

Russian Army (Photo: Reuters)
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Meanwhile, in the West it is claimed that the Russian military deployment around Ukraine is nothing new despite the announcements and videos about the withdrawal of forces and the end of the exercises. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said at a regular meeting of Allied defense ministers in Brussels that his organization had “the ability to prove through satellite images that Russia had not withdrawn its forces from Ukraine’s borders.”

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian stated that the size of Russian forces at the border had not changed. At the end of the conference, the military allied instructed its commanders to prepare for the possibility of sending additional forces to southeastern Europe, including air and sea forces, in response to the Russian presence on the Ukrainian border. However, she said, these are proportionate “preventive measures.” “What we are seeing is that they have increased the number of their troops, and more forces are on the way,” Stoltenberg said. “If they really start to retreat, that’s something to be blessed about, but they’ve always moved forces back and forth.”

The defense ministers expressed their concern at the broad and unjustified array, they said, of the Russian army, and called on Russia to choose the path of diplomacy and immediately withdraw its forces. They also reiterated their support for the territorial and sovereign integrity of Ukraine, threatening Russia with a “high price” if these were violated.
In this context, the West recorded with concern the Kremlin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov’s that there is a “high and genuine likelihood” of an attack by the Ukrainian army in the separatist Donbas districts, and that this “could lead to a civil war.” At the same time, a commission of inquiry announced the discovery of a “mass grave” of about 300 Donbas residents who were allegedly killed in a bombing without warning by Ukrainian forces in 2014.

Satellite image showing the Russian army's deployment in the Crimea (Photo: 2022 Maxar Technologies / Handout via REUTERS)Satellite image showing the Russian army’s deployment in the Crimea (Photo: 2022 Maxar Technologies / Handout via REUTERS)

White House spokeswoman Jen Saki said at a news briefing: “We are still at a time window where we believe an attack by Russian forces could happen at any moment. We have seen such tactics in the past, and these could be related to reports of Ukrainians harming separatist forces in the Donbas.”
“There are more Russian forces in the Ukrainian border area and no less, and they are stationed at points of attack. We are particularly concerned about Putin and other senior officials using the word ‘genocide’ in the Donbass region,” he said. Without a factual basis, and can serve as an excuse for Russian military action in Ukraine. “

A senior intelligence source in the West claimed that Russia’s military maneuvers were now at their peak, and that the threat to Ukraine would remain high at least until the end of February. The source told Reuters that the current situation is one in which the risk of a confrontation or an unintentional military incident is highest. He said Russian President Vladimir Putin would be able to keep his forces on the ground for many more months. Moscow government spokeswoman Maria Zakharova sharply criticized the early publicity in the West, and especially in the US and UK, of the day of the Russian attack and even the hour, saying that “the West has decided to degrade itself to the end.”

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov cynically advised Ukrainians to sound alarms whenever a report was received from the British media on the “exact” time of the Russian invasion. Peskov also denied that his country was involved in the cyber attack on Ukraine, adding that “NATO is wrong in saying there is no evidence of a withdrawal of Russian forces.”

Ukrainians celebrate Unity Day (Photo: Chris McGrath / Getty Images)Ukrainians celebrate Unity Day (Photo: Chris McGrath / Getty Images)

On the other hand, the Ukrainian government claims that “the cyber attack was coordinated, and the purpose of this attack was to sow panic and undermine the situation. The Interior Ministry sees evidence of involvement of foreign intelligence services. The shutdown caused millions in financial damage, but no real damage to infrastructure.”

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