Kiev wants to trigger Russian strikes on civilians, says Moscow

Kiev wants to trigger Russian strikes on civilians and stage a fake chemical weapon attack, Moscow claims.

The Russian military claims on Tuesday that the Ukrainian government is setting the stage for a number of provocations that would falsely implicate Russia in war crimes and atrocities, including a chemical weapon attack.

According to a statement from General Mikhail Mizintsev, Kiev plans to launch rocket artillery strikes from the city of Krivoy Rog in the Dnepropetrovsk region. Ukrainian nationalists would fire from a location in a residential area at a hospital in a Russia-controlled community, he claimed.

The Ukrainian neo-Nazis want to trigger return fire and then accuse Russian armed forces of indiscriminate attacks against civilian infrastructure and Ukrainian non-combatants, Mizintsev said.

The security service of Ukraine SBU has been in contact with health officials in the Odessa Region to work out issues with reception and treatment of people injured by toxic chemicals, the official said. The Russian military believes this is an indication that Kiev wants to stage a fake chemical weapon attack and blames Russia for it.

Mizintsev is the head of the National Defense Control Center of Russia and oversees the Russian military's humanitarian mission for the Ukraine operation. In his statement, he addressed Western nations and international organizations, such as the UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross, warning that Kiev is preparing these and other similar provocations against Russia, using the supportive media to make the claims seem credible.

Russia sent troops into Ukraine on February 24, citing Kiev's failure to implement the Minsk agreements, designed to give the regions of Donetsk and Lugansk special status within the Ukrainian state. The protocols, brokered by France and Germany, were first signed in 2014. The former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko admitted that Kiev's main goal was to use the ceasefire to buy time and create powerful armed forces. In February 2022, the Kremlin recognized the Donbass republics as independent states and demanded that Ukraine declare itself a neutral country that will never join any Western military bloc. Kiev insists that the Russian offensive was unprovoked.