On the background of new tensions in the Donbass, the US administration has again warned Moscow against any military invasion, while now open the diplomatic channel.
by, and
The hope for a massive Russian military with the Ukrainian border has been long fire, despite Russian announcements indicating, Friday, February 18, “the return of tanks in their permanent bases”. Nearly 150,000 Russian soldiers remain available for a possible military operation. And, near the line of demarcation between Ukraine and the two “self-proclaimed republics” of Donetsk and Louhansk, the Thursday day was particularly tense.
In the village of Stanytsia Louhanska, the kids were about to walk when a shell fell on the school. None have been touched, but three adults were injured. Kiev has criminalized the Prorusses separatists, who accused Ukrainian forces to multiply heavy weapon bombing to arouse climbing. Along the 470 kilometers of the contact line, where some 500,000 people live, about fifteen municipalities were affected by one-day shots, according to the Proliska Humanitarian NGO. So far, only three houses had been achieved since the beginning of February.
“It’s really an escalation. There has been no shots as intensive since 2014-2015, says Evgeniy Kapline, the principal and founder of Proliska, Kharkiv (East). The inhabitants are panicked . We receive a strong demand for psychological help, and materials to repair the houses. And the bombings continue while we speak. At the moment, 26 rockets have come down on another village, “he continues , eyes riveted on his screen, between two calls. The bombings made no death, but two soldiers and five civilians were injured, according to Kiev. “People are used to, they take refuge in the basements, pursues Mr. Kapline. But suddenly, they pile up and contaminate to COVID-19 [only 35% of Ukrainians are vaccinated].”
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, immediately denounced a “provocation”. Tuesday, Vladimir Putin had once again supported a “genocide” of the Russian-speaking minority was underway in Donbass and that a “Russian population” supported self-proclaimed republics, as if he sought to prepare his public opinion at a new stroke, after the annexation of Crimea, in 2014. “The violence of this Thursday are a surprise because the ceasefire, reaffirmed on December 22, seemed to hold good On the ground despite the growing political tensions all around, “says a diplomat involved in the organization’s contact group for security and cooperation in Europe (OSCE). The group must meet on Friday emergency at the request of the Ukrainian government, according to the same source.
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