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Andriy Lysenko: Russia is planning an international scale provocation against Ukraine in order to discredit Ukraine and leave the Minsk process

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Kyiv, 12 November 2015. “In order to divert attention from the tragic events in the Syrian Arab Republic, where the Russian Armed Forces actions caused numerous deaths of civilians, the Russian leadership is preparing an international scale provocation against Ukraine. Its purpose is to discredit the Ukrainian leadership and obtain a cause for filing a lawsuit against Ukraine to the International Criminal Court in the Hague, as well as pave the way for Russia to leave the Minsk process,” said the spokesperson of the Presidential Administration of Ukraine on the ATO related issues Colonel Andriy Lysenko at a briefing at Ukraine Crisis Media Center. According to him, the Russian side is fabricating proofs of the so-called “Ukrainian genocide of the Russian-speaking population in Donbas”. In particular, they are faking documentary materials to show that the Ukrainian military destroyed about 400 houses and 500 people (including women, children and the elderly) in Sokilnyki of Slovyanoserbsk district, Luhansk region, which is now the temporarily occupied territory near the boundary line. Col. Lysenko also informs that this work involves officers from the Russia’s Security Service (“FSB”), the Main Intelligence Directorate (“GRU”) General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, the Investigative Committee of Russia, and representatives of the so-called “power structures” of the “Luhansk People’s Republic” (“LPR”). “The propagandists use real facts about Sokilnyki destruction and its residents’ death. But they suffered from the insurgents and Russian troops during the fighting in late 2014 – early 2015,” explained Lysenko. According to him, Russia is also preparing advocacy materials for the media: they are planning historical parallels with the tragic events in Khatyn during World War II and the Yugoslav wars of the 90-ies in the 20th century.

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However, there is evidence that Russian citizens regularly participate in the war in eastern Ukraine. Yesterday, an enemy sabotage and reconnaissance group unsuccessfully attacked Ukrainian positions. After that, in place of the combat collision, the Ukrainian military found a Russian bank card, a piece of paper with a telephone number registered in Chukotka, and armored plates of a body armor manufactured in St. Petersburg.

Col. Lysenko also said that in Luhansk sector they recorded provocative militants’ shelling near Trokhizbenka north to Bakhmutka road. Two mines were released from an 82-mm mortar. In Donetsk sector, military operations were conducted south of Horlivka and on the western outskirts of Donetsk. “And there was one enemy provocation yesterday in Mariupol sector near Bohdanivka, halfway from Volnovakha to Komsomolske. The enemy used small arms,” said Col. Lysenko. According to him, Ukrainian Armed Forces suffered no lethal casualties, one soldier was wounded.

Yesterday, Ukraine’s Security Service detained an employer of the so-called “Ministry of Fuel and Energy of “Donetsk People’s Republic” (‘DPR’)” for embezzlement property of Ukrainian coal industry state enterprises. “The malefactor was detained in Kharkiv region, where he arrived for personal reasons. The former deputy head of a Donetsk state enterprise had helped militants to seize public enterprises of coal industry and transfer them to the jurisdiction of the so-called “DPR”. By doing so, he inflicted damage to the state worth over 63 million hryvnia,” said Col. Lysenko.