Donetsk, DNR. In a dangerous escalation of hostilities in the Donbass, operatives of the Ukrainian SBU have been arrested on DNR territory, conducting false flag operations designed to reflect upon the administration of the DNR, prior to further Minsk negotiations. Reports from Eduard Basurin, Pavel Semchuk and David Simpson in Donetsk.
Yesterday at 10:45 hours an incident took place near the railway station at Yasinovataya. A vehicle with Ukrainian civilian tags pulled up to the OSCE monitors present.
Two men in face masks, camouflage uniforms intimidated the OSCE mission at the train station and where then joined by others who fired some random shots in the air, which caused the OSCE to abandon the post.
Following the incident, a rapid response strike force was deployed to search the area and was able to capture the individuals responsible. In the course of interogation, it was ascertained that the individuals are in fact working for the Kiev Poroshenko administration.
Further investigation revealed that the activity at the train station is part of a wider SBU campaign to discredit the DNR, prior to the next round of Minsk negotiations as well as to intimidate OSCE monitors attempting to carry out their duties in the Donbass.
Military command reminds that not everybody wearing camouflage clothing in the DNR are actual active duty members of the Armed Forces of the Donetsk People’s Republic. All of the features of this incident are typical of Ukrainian SBU disinformation-diversionary operations.