The dialogue of the deaf also continued between the United States, which now fears an attack from Ukraine in the next few days
and Russia, which sweeps away these accusations.
By midday, the sound of shelling could be heard in Stanitsa Luganska, a town in eastern Ukraine under the control of government forces. Already hit the day before by gunfire which damaged a kindergarten and several houses, the locality remained partially deprived of electricity on Friday.
In this very tense situation, all eyes were once again on Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose intentions regarding Ukraine remain unclear.
Friday afternoon, he is to receive his Belarusian ally Alexander Lukashenko, with whom vast joint military exercises are underway.
Saturday, the master of the Kremlin must supervise the maneuvers of his strategic forces
including ballistic and cruise missile testing.
Russia said on Friday it was making further withdrawals from the Ukrainian border, information that leaves Kiev and Westerners skeptical.
This does not take place
declared Friday before the deputies the Ukrainian Minister of Defense, Oleksiï Reznikov, according to which Russia has massed 149,000 soldiers on the Ukrainian border.
reporting a situation abnormal
he accused Moscow-backed separatists of committing 60 truce violations on Thursday against two to five per day on average
these last months.
Pro-Russian rebels reported 27 shots from the Ukrainian army.
A garage that Ukrainian officials say was damaged by shelling in the Lugansk region.
Photo: Reuters / NATIONAL POLICE OF UKRAINE
On Thursday, the kindergarten in Stanitsa Luganska was hit by separatist shells as 20 children and 18 adults were inside, punching a hole in the school wall, which is a reminder of the worst hours of the conflict, which has been going on since 2014 and has claimed more than 14,000 lives.
I have only one wish, that the war ends
said Natalia Slessareva, an employee slightly injured after being thrown towards the door by the explosion.
Shooting Intensification
Observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) reported a significant increase in shootings, with 189 ceasefire violations recorded in the Donetsk region on Thursday, up from 24 the previous day. In the Lugansk region, another separatist stronghold, 402 violations were reported, compared to 129 on Wednesday.
The separatists for their part accused the Ukrainian army of having fired from a tank towards Gorlivka, in the Donetsk region, in the morning.
Both sides accuse each other of being behind this new outbreak of violence.
Peace agreements signed in 2015 in Minsk had enabled the establishment of a ceasefire and a considerable drop in clashes, but sporadic violence regularly erupts on the front line.
The US Secretary of Defense and theNATO warned Thursday in Brussels against a provocation in eastern Ukraine orchestrated by Moscow to justify a military intervention.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock denounced the unprecedented deployment of troops on the border with Ukraine
and felt that Russia had Cold War demands and wanted to question the fundamental principles of the European peace order
.
The head of American diplomacy Antony Blinken came before the Security Council ofUN to urge the Russians to abandon the path of war
.
All the indications we have is that [les Russes] are ready to enter Ukraine, to attack Ukraine
US President Joe Biden had previously said.
Russia, which denies any plan of invasion, but demands guarantees for its security such as the withdrawal ofNATO from Eastern Europe, is considered the military and financial godfather of the separatists in eastern Ukraine.
The increase in shelling along the Ukrainian front line recalls the situation in Georgia in 2008, when Georgian forces launched an assault on the separatist region of South Ossetia after days of exchanges of mortar and mortar fire. ‘artillery
Accusing Tbilisi of aggression against Russian peacekeepers and South Ossetian residents of Russian nationality, Moscow launched a devastating offensive.
The five-day conflict claimed several hundred lives and Moscow eventually recognized South Ossetia and another breakaway Georgian region, Abkhazia, as independent states.
