The Ukrainian government is setting the stage for a number of provocations that would falsely implicate Russia in war crimes and atrocities, including a chemical weapon attack, the Russian military claimed on Tuesday.
Among other things, Kiev plans to launch rocket artillery strikes from the city of Krivoy Rog in the Dnepropetrovsk Region, according to a statement by Colonel General Mikhail Mizintsev. Ukrainian nationalists would fire from a location in a residential area at a hospital in a Russia-controlled community, he claimed.
“The Ukrainian neo-Nazis want to trigger return fire and then accuse the Russian armed forces of indiscriminate attacks against civilian infrastructure and Ukrainian non-combatants,” Mizintsev said.
In a separate case, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has been in contact with health officials in Odessa Region to “work out issues with reception and treatment of people injured by toxic chemicals,” the official added. The Russian military believes this to be an indicator that Kiev wants to stage a fake chemical weapon attack and blame it on Russia.
Mizintsev is the head of the National Defense Control Center of Russia, and also supervises the Russian military’s humanitarian mission for the Ukraine operation. In his statement, he addressed Western nations and international organizations such as the UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross, warning that Kiev is preparing “these and other similar provocations” against Russia, using the supportive media to make the claims seem credible.
Russia sent troops into Ukraine on February 24, citing Kiev’s failure to implement the Minsk agreements, designed to give the regions of Donetsk and Lugansk special status within the Ukrainian state. The protocols, brokered by Germany and France, were first signed in 2014. Former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has since admitted that Kiev’s main goal was to use the ceasefire to buy time and “create powerful armed forces.”
In February 2022, the Kremlin recognized the Donbass republics as independent states and demanded that Ukraine officially declare itself a neutral country that will never join any Western military bloc. Kiev insists the Russian offensive was completely unprovoked.