Shelling in Ukraine Intensifies, Russia Using Red Flag Ops to Justify Invasion

The Donbas region of Ukraine saw intensifying artillery shelling on Friday and Saturday and several reported Ukraine “attacks” have been debunked as Russian-backed red flag operations.

Ukrainian civilians and checkpoint guards took cellphone video of shelling and small arms fire in eastern Ukraine.

In Donetsk:

Yesterday, a vehicle allegedly belonging to the head of the Russian-backed militia was blown up. Then, internet sleuths determined that some Donetsk People’s Republic (DNR) funny business was to blame.

This video of supposed shelling in the Luhansk People’s Republic (LNR), also a Russian-backed region, shows a checkpoint receiving extremely small and ineffective fire. The damage to the concrete looks more like fireworks burns than military explosive rounds.

In the Ukrainian-held city of Schastia, things sound a little more real.

The increased military activity, bad actions by Russian-backed separatists, and Russian President Vladimir Putin saying that everyone should pay close attention to Ukraine on Monday had NATO move its Kyiv office out of the Ukrainian capital city.

“The safety of our employees is a high priority, so the staff has now been moved to Lviv and to Brussels,” NATO said in a statement Saturday.

The military buildup around Ukraine has continued despite Putin’s assertion that some units would return to their home bases now that some of the “military exercises” have concluded. Analysts estimate 190,000 Russian troops are stationed in Crimea (Stolen by Russia in 2014 from Ukraine), Belarus (Russian puppet state), and Russia along the Ukraine border. The amassed force is 2/3rds of Russia’s standing army.

Belarus’ Security Council chief seems to indicate that even though their joint military exercises with Russia had concluded, Russian troops wouldn’t be leaving any time soon.

The U.S., U.K. and Canada have already relocated their embassies to Lviv, Ukraine near the Polish border as it appears that it is no longer “if” Russia will invade Ukraine, but “when.” At the moment, that answer appears to be Monday.

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