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Claiming that it has information about the mining of a number of social infrastructure facilities in Donetsk by Russian special services, the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine (DIU) on late Friday urged residents in Donetsk not to leave their home and avoid using public transport.
Taking to Twitter, the DIU said these measures are aimed at destabilizing the situation in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine and creating grounds for accusing Ukraine of terrorist acts. "The DIU of the State Security Service is authorized to state that the military intelligence of Ukraine has information about the mining of a number of social infrastructure facilities in Donetsk by Russian special services in order to further undermine them," tweeted Defence Intelligence of Ukraine. "These measures are aimed at destabilizing the situation in the temporarily occupied territories of our state and creating grounds for accusing Ukraine of terrorist acts," it added. "The Defence Intelligence of the State Security Service of Ukraine urges Donetsk residents not to leave their homes and not to use public transport," it said in another tweet. Earlier on Wednesday, the White House warned that Russia could invade Ukraine at any time using a fabricated pretext or a false flag operation. "We are in the window where we believe an attack could come at any time and that would be preceded by a fabricated pretext that the Russians use as an excuse to launch an invasion," White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said at a press conference. Her remarks came one day after Russian defence officials reported that some military units were leaving their positions near Ukraine's border. But US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that Washington does not see any "meaningful pullback" of Russian troops. Earlier on Friday, Blinken said Russia's claims it was pulling forces back from the border are false, adding that "on the contrary, we see additional forces going to the border including leading-edge forces that would be part of any aggression." Blinken also said that everything Washington has seen happening on Russia's border with Ukraine in the past 24 to 48 hours is part of a scenario of creating false provocations designed to elicit a response. The US Embassy in Kiev informed on Thursday that Russia's shelling of Stanytsia Luhanska in Ukrainian government-controlled territory in Donbas hit a kindergarten, injured two teachers, and knocked out power in the village. Washington has estimated that some 30,000 Russian troops have been deployed at neighbouring Belarus as part of joint exercises that are due to run until Sunday. Russia has denied any plans and accused Ukraine of breaching cease-fire agreements in the east of the country, where the army is fighting pro-Moscow separatists. (ANI)
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