U.S. Says Russia Lied About Troop Withdrawals as Shells Hit Ukrainian Kindergarten (1 Viewer)

[Rogue Valley]

U.S. Says Russia Lied About Troop Withdrawals as Shells Hit Ukrainian Kindergarten

2.17.22 - Russian artillery shell strikes a kindergarten in Stanytsia Luhanska, Ukraine.

2.17.22
On Thursday, Russian-backed separatists in an eastern part of the country fired rounds of artillery that injured three people, disrupted power in the area and damaged a kindergarten in the village of Stanytsia Luhanska, the Ukraine military said. The U.S. has previously warned that Russia could stage an attack or seek other ways to claim an invasion of its neighbor is justified, which Biden reiterated on Thursday in his remark about a "false-flag operation." Blinken also expanded on what a Russia's plans "to manufacture a pretext for its attack" could look like. "This could be a violent event that Russia will blame on Ukraine or an outrageous accusation that Russia will level against the Ukrainian government," he said Thursday. It could be a "fabricated so-called terrorist bombing inside Russia, the invented discovery of a mass grave, a staged drone strike against civilians … even a real attack using chemical weapons." "Russia may describe this event as ethnic cleansing or a genocide," he added. "Russia media has already begun to spread some of these false alarms and claims to maximize public outrage to lay the groundwork."

The OSCE (the organization which officially monitors the ceasefire in eastern Ukraine) said artillery shellings were up by 50% yesterday and 4 of its recon drones were shot down.

In addition, cellphone service was disrupted for about for hours yesterday in the Donbas region.

Shellfire as Putin Turns Up Heat on Ukraine and West - The Moscow Times

Shellfire rang out in eastern Ukraine on Friday as Kyiv and Washington accused Russia of seeking to provoke an incident to falsely justify an invasion and Moscow-backed rebels said they were evacuating civilians from their breakaway enclave. An AFP reporter near the frontline between government...

www.themoscowtimes.com

 

[Rexedgar]

This cannot be a good sign:

Separatist leader in eastern Ukraine announces evacuation of residents

A Russian-backed separatist leader in eastern Ukraine announced the evacuation of his breakaway region's residents to southeast Russia on Friday after an increase in shelling.

www.reuters.com