(TargetLiberty.org) – Tens of thousands of people are fleeing the Luhansk and Donetsk regions of Ukraine, after Russian-backed leaders claimed the Ukrainian government is planning to attack them. Is this a real panic, or the beginning of a Russian false flag operation?
Evacuations have been ramped up as shelling in the Russian-backed separatist enclaves of Luhansk and Donetsk has escalated in recent days. https://t.co/750oaIOLMN
— Newsweek (@Newsweek) February 21, 2022
On February 21, Russian officials announced that more than 60,000 people have fled from the separatist regions of Luhansk and Donetsk in eastern Ukraine. Ukraine lost control of these pro-Russian enclaves during the 2014 war, and since then they’ve been ruled by separatist leaders loyal to Moscow. Now, Russia is claiming Ukraine wants to attack the rebel regions – but US intelligence says Russia could mount a fake attack itself to justify an invasion.
Russian President Vladimir Putin recognized the independence of Luhansk and Donetsk on Monday night, and ordered Russian troops into the regions as “peacekeeping forces.” Putin insists the crisis has been caused by Ukraine and NATO, and is sticking to his demands that NATO pull back to the west. Meanwhile, Russian forces around Ukraine’s borders have almost doubled in the last three weeks, to an estimated 190,000 troops. On Monday night, thousands of them were flooding across the border into the two regions – which is technically Ukrainian soil. They’re facing Ukrainian troops across the tense ceasefire lines where violence has been festering since 2014.
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