Eastern Ukraine: US accuses separatists of “cynical” manoeuvres

The US has condemned the separatists’ evacuation call in eastern Ukraine as “cruel” and “cynical”. The rebels had declared that 700,000 people were to be brought to Russia from the Donetsk region alone.

The announcement by pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine that they would be bringing civilians from areas they control to Russia has sparked outrage in the United States. It was a “cynical” maneuver, said a spokesman for the US State Department on the fringes of the Munich Security Conference. “It is cynical and cruel to use people as a pawn to distract the world from the fact that Russia is increasing its troops in preparation for an attack.” The separatists’ evacuation announcements are “another attempt to use lies and disinformation to cover up that Russia is the aggressor in the conflict,” the spokesman added.

The separatists had previously called on civilians in the areas they controlled to go to Russia. In the Donetsk region alone, 700,000 people are to be brought to safety, it was said recently. The leader of the self-proclaimed “People’s Republic” of Donetsk, Denis Puschilin, said in a video message that the “mass emigration” of the civilian population to the Russian Federation was currently being organized. “Women, children and the elderly are the first to be brought to safety,” says Puschilin. “A temporary departure will save you and your relatives’ lives.”

In consultation with the Russian authorities, accommodation has been provided in the neighboring Rostov region in southern Russia. According to the Interfax agency, Minister of Civil Protection Alexander Chupriyan is to travel to Rostov on the orders of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The head of the separatists in Luhansk had also called on civilians to leave for Russia. “In order to avoid civilian casualties, I call on the residents to leave for the Russian Federation as soon as possible,” said Leonid Pasechnik.

Mutual accusations

Violence has been increasing in eastern Ukraine for days. According to the news agency, more than 500 explosions could be heard within 24 hours. The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) said that was about four times the average for the month before. It also reported nearly 600 ceasefire violations. According to the AFP news agency, shelling continued near the village of Stanyzia-Luhanska. On Thursday, a kindergarten was hit in the place controlled by the Ukrainian army. The Ukrainian army and the separatists blamed each other for the incidents.

Western countries and NATO warned yesterday of a Russian provocation in the area. In this way, Russia could be trying to create a pretext to justify a military conflict, said US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin. The OSCE said the GPS signal was disrupted during the shelling until Thursday noon, causing its drones, which it uses to monitor ceasefire compliance, to go off course. The mobile network was also down.

Putin sees “deterioration of the situation”

Russian President Vladimir Putin recently warned that the situation in eastern Ukraine would deteriorate. “At the moment we see the situation deteriorating,” he said at a press conference with the allied Belarusian ruler Alexander Lukashenko in Moscow. Russia and Belarus are currently holding joint military exercises near the Belarusian-Ukrainian border, for which Moscow has transferred around 30,000 soldiers to the ex-Soviet republic, according to US information, and which are expected to last until Sunday.

For Saturday, Russia announced the start of another major maneuver with strategic troops and ballistic missiles. Putin and Lukashenko want to personally oversee the maneuver, which the Kremlin chief described as “one of the most important events in the complex of military cooperation.” The maneuver has been planned for a long time and aims to test the military’s readiness and the reliability of nuclear and conventional weapons.

Russia organizes large-scale exercises of its armed forces every year, but the maneuvers have so far always taken place in the fall. US experts have expressed concern about the move to February, saying Russia may want to coordinate the exercise with an invasion of Ukraine. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia had informed its foreign partners about the exercise in advance. The maneuver should not worry the West.

USA: Russia with up to 190,000 forces in and around Ukraine

Russia has massed more than 100,000 troops on the border with Ukraine in recent months. According to a US diplomat, Ukraine is even threatened by 169,000 to 190,000 soldiers and security forces under Russian control. “This is the most significant military mobilization in Europe since World War II,” Ambassador Michael Carpenter said at a meeting of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) in Vienna. The current estimate includes soldiers in Russia’s border region, Belarus and Russia’s annexed Crimea peninsula, Washington said. It also includes other Russian security forces in those areas and pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine. At the end of January, around 100,000 forces were still under Russian control.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg expressed concern about the extent of the Russian military presence on ZDF. “There can be no doubt that we are now witnessing the greatest concentration of military forces in Europe since the end of the Cold War,” he said. “And only Russia has the capacity, and it certainly has, to invade. Without warning.”

The US has repeatedly warned that Russia could invade the neighboring country in the coming days. Russia rejects this and for its part states that it feels threatened by NATO. The US has labeled Russian announcements of partial withdrawals as “false” and instead accuses Moscow of further increasing forces at the border.