Ukraine masses its troops on the borders of Donbass, and intensifies its bombardments.
High caliber artillery fire, though prohibited in the contact zone, is intensifying against the Donbass. Six 120mm shells hit the village of Zhelobok, seven of 122mm hit the village of Rayevka, then ten against Vesyola Gorka. Shelling was also carried out from the Kyiv-controlled city of Novotoshkivske, against Lugoanskoe, Krimsoe and Sokolniki, with more than 20 bombs dropped. On February 17, 17 bombing operations had been committed against the Donbass.
In Donetsk, on the evening of February 18, 2022, the car of the head of a DPR militia department Denis Sinenkov was targeted by a bomb attack. In front of the DPR government building.
A unit of saboteurs from Kiev attempted to blow up an ammonia tank at the Stirol power station in the town of Gorlovka, an operation claimed to have been foiled by the Donetsk authorities.
In Lugansk, it was a terrorist attack, caused by saboteurs from Kiev according to the city authorities, which hit a gas pipeline on the night of February 18, 2022.
Second explosion in #Luhansk reportedly a gas stationpic.twitter.com/IMrJRjUQWN
— marqs (@MarQs__) February 18, 2022
In this context, the Russian Foreign Minister expressed his deep concern:
With regard to the situation on the front line in Donbass, we are very concerned about what has been happening in recent days, particularly yesterday and the day before yesterday, with a significant increase in shelling, moreover using weapons prohibited by the Minsk agreements. I want to underline the fact that the regime in Kiev has for years deliberately violated its obligations and sabotaged the additional measures taken to ensure the ceasefire”. The diplomat also denounced the reports of the OSCE which refuse to name the authors – Ukrainians – of the bombardments.
Evacuation of civilian populations from Donbass
Faced with the intensification of Ukrainian bombardments targeting the towns and villages of Donbass, in violation of the Minsk agreements, and while several hundred thousand residents of the DPR and LPR have Russian passports, an operation to evacuate civilian populations to Russia began on February 18, 2022. The presidents of the LPR and the DRP, Leonid Pasechnik and Denis Pushilin, denounced the growing danger of a resumption of military offensives by Kiev against Donbass.
First buses of residents of the Russia-backed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) left in direction of the Russian border #Ukraine #Russia pic.twitter.com/XABUV0duQ8
— Michael A. Horowitz (@michaelh992) February 18, 2022
The Russian region of Rostov-on-Don has prepared to receive refugees from Donbass.
The text above was translated from a French report.