Clashes multiplied this Friday in eastern Ukraine, where separatists ordered the evacuation of civilians to Russia, raising fears that President Vladimir Putin is finalizing preparations to invade the country.
The US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, denounced the implementation of “a scenario” of “provocations” designed by the Russians to justify an attack on Ukraine, after two days of clashes. Secessionist authorities in the east of the country ordered the evacuation of civilians.
A State Department spokesman considered it “cynical and cruel to use human beings as pawns, in order to distract attention from the fact that Russia is reinforcing its troops in the face of an attack.”
And the US Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, assured that the Russian army was sending “more forces”, preparing for an intervention “approaching the border, positioning troops, increasing its logistical capabilities”.
A US official estimated that Russia had 190,000 troops in and around Ukraine, including separatist forces.. Until now, there was talk of 150,000 on the country’s borders.
US President Joe Biden will hold a video conference with the leaders of several European and NATO countries and plans to make statements around 9:00 p.m.
The Russian president accused Ukraine of fueling the conflict and admitted an “aggravation of the situation” in Donbas, a region where the Ukrainian army has been fighting separatist forces for eight years.
“All Kiev has to do is go to the negotiating table with the representatives of [los separatistas] of the Donbas and to speak”, declared Putin when receiving his counterpart and Belarusian ally, Alexander Lukashenko.
Take up arms
Throughout the day, the belligerents accused each other of violating a truce and using heavy weapons.
Western countries have threatened Russia with economic sanctions if it decides to attack Ukraine.
“Sanctions will be imposed no matter what happens. Whether there is a reason or not, they will find one, because their goal is to stop the development of Russia,” Putin said.
The rumble of bombs could be heard in Stanytsia Luganska, a Ukrainian town controlled by government forces near the front line, AFP journalists reported. The day before, this city was already the target of bombing, which reached a nursery, in an attack that miraculously left no one dead.
Denis Pushilin, a separatist leader from the Donetsk region, announced an evacuation of civilians to Russia, “first of all, women, children and the elderly.”
Leonid Pasechnik, leader of Luhansk, did the same, calling on “every man capable of bearing a weapon to defend his homeland.”
Putin ordered that 10,000 rubles ($129) be paid to each evacuee from those areas. Russian television networks broadcast images of evacuations of children in an orphanage.
“That is not happening,” declared the Ukrainian Minister of Defense, Oleksiy Reznikov, this Friday before the deputies.
According to the US government, Russia is looking for a “pretext” to attack Ukraine, and an increase in violence in Donbas could be one, since Moscow is seen, according to Westerners, as a defender of the Russian-speaking populations of the region, among those who handed out Russian passports in the past.
More than 14 thousand deaths
This Friday, dozens of violations of the ceasefire were reported, but neither side reported deaths on the front line, several hundred kilometers long. Since 2014, the conflict has claimed more than 14,000 lives.
Observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) reported a significant increase in gunfire, with 189 ceasefire violations in the Donetsk region on Thursday, compared to 24 the day before. In Luhansk, 402 rapes were reported on Thursday and 129 on Wednesday.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused the OSCE of bias and of “softening the points that show the guilt of the Ukrainian armed forces.”
The peace agreements signed in 2015 in Minsk allowed the establishment of a ceasefire and a considerable decrease in clashes, although violent clashes continued to take place from time to time.
Russia, which already annexed a Ukrainian territory, Crimea, in 2014, denies planning to invade Ukraine.
Moscow demands guarantees on its security, such as that NATO put an end to its expansion policy, preventing an eventual accession of Ukraine; to commit not to deploy offensive weapons near Russian territory and to withdraw its infrastructure in Eastern Europe. Some demands rejected by Western countries. (I)
Source: Eluniverso
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