Russia, aiming to justify its military aggression in the Azov and Black seas, intends to stage new armed provocations to discredit Ukraine, according to Ukraine’s Defense Ministry spokesperson Colonel Oleksandr Motuzyanyk.
“To get this done, Russia is inventing new accusations against our state over alleged preparations of terror acts in temporarily occupied areas of the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, and in Crimea,” the press officer said on Jan. 4.
He added that the Ukrainian military is not ruling out that Russia might sabotage critical infrastructure sites such as thermal power stations, ports, bridges, enterprises working with toxic materials, and transport.
After inflicting possible deadly incidents Russia could spread massive propaganda campaigns blaming Ukraine for the destruction, Motuzyanyk concluded.
Besides, Ukraine’s Joint Operative Headquarters claimed on Jan. 4 that Russian-backed militants were intentionally attacking near-frontline civilian areas of the Donbas to then blame Ukrainian forces deployed nearby.
They pointed out to a Jan. 3 report by the Special Monitoring Mission in Ukraine (SMM) of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) stating that the mission’s monitors spotted fresh damages the day before reportedly inflicted by firearms on a civilian house in the occupied town of Dokuchaevsk, some 20 kilometers southwest of Donetsk.
At the same time, Ukraine’s military added that the location of the newly damaged house as well as details of local terrain and deployment sites of both Ukrainian and Russian-backed troops in the area show that Ukrainian forces cannot be blaimed for the attack on civilians.
“Thus, the nearest lines of the Joint Forces are located more than 5 kilometers away (from the damaged house), the military claimed on the Joint Operative Headquarter’s Facebook page on Jan. 4.
Such provocations prove that Russian-backed occupants intentionally sought to escalate the conflict and had no desire to observe ceasefire and Minsk agreements, the military added.
Earlier on Dec. 29, Ukraine’s military intelligence also reported that it suspected Russia in preparing a possible terror attack with the use of chemicals.
According to Vadym Skibitskiy, deputy head of the Defense Ministry’s Chief Intelligence Directorate, following such a provocation Kremlin propaganda could present it as a chemical attack by the Ukrainian military against civilians.
He also added that a group of Russian experts had arrived to the occupied Donbas in mid-December with toxic chemicals.
Shortly after, the enemy increased its chemical warfare alert and got a supply of modern individual chemical protection kits that were supposed to be tested in combat, the official said.
