On February 18, leaders of puppet “DPR” and “LPR” initiated enforced “evacuation” of civilians to the Rostov region in Russia on the pretense of “Ukrainian escalation” to create the image of “humanitarian catastrophe” in Donbas.
The pre-planned campaign was preceded and accompanied by a spike in shelling attacks by the Russian hybrid forces and massive disinformation flows shifting the blame for them on Ukraine. The ongoing escalation is part of the Kremlin’s efforts to lay the ground for Russia’s further aggression against Ukraine and again attempt to coerce the West into accepting Putin’s terms.