During the whole period since signing of the Minsk agreements in September 2014 Russia and Russia-backed separatists from the so-called Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics have been roughly violating the basic provisions of the agreement primarily those concerning ceasefire and withdrawal of the heavy armament from the demarcation line.
Since the end of January 2016 Russian troops as well as separatist forces controlled by them have started excessively violating the ceasefire regime.
In February alone the OSCE observers have reported 15000 breaches of the Agreement that mainly consisted in shelling the positions of the Ukrainian Armed forces and civilian living areas using not only the small arms but also 80mm and 120mm mortars banned by the Minsk agreement as well as fired from the self-propelled air defense systems and tanks.
It should be noted that lately the provocations from the side of DRP and LPR have become more frequent and consist in shelling own positions and civilian residential houses located within the temporarily controlled territory and followed by cynical charges of the Ukrainian part in the committed crimes. Moreover, it should be born in mind that similar provocations are done on the orders of the Moscow supervisors in close cooperation with Russian propaganda channels such as Russia Today, Lifenews, Russia 24 as well as separatists-run local media.
By the “strange” quirk of fate Russian news channels crews always appear to be at the provocation sites at the right time.
Professionally shot scenarios demonstrating the damaged apartment houses, perished people and other atrocities committed by so called “Kyiv junta” are broadcast for both Russian spectators and foreign viewers.
Russia Today, Lifenews, Russia 24 and other propaganda TV-channels tend to convince foreign viewers that there are no Russian troops in the territory of Ukraine hence there is civil war and Ukraine is the only to be blamed in violating the Minsk agreements and sparking humanitarian tragedy in Donbas.
In terms of local viewers all these pieces are aimed at arousing the hatred towards Ukraine and to everything pertaining to Ukraine as a whole as well as persuade that no one but Ukrainian officials are in charge of all the current troubles.
Therefore, the representatives of the so-called DPR are actively printing the articles designed to blame again Ukraine in the following misdeeds:
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Ceasefire violation;
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Continuous shelling of the residential houses;
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Disregard of the provisions on mine cleaning of the buffer zone;
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Human rights violation in Donbas.
The concept of the meeting organizers is simple as it is intended to intensify the panic among the local Donbas citizens worn-out by the war, to sow the seeds of hatred towards Ukraine and by these means to prepare the breeding ground for holding the so-called elections in the occupied territory.
It is beyond any doubt that the meeting will be widely covered by the Russian TV channels and “leading” DPR media. Considering the essence of the Russian invaders and their henchmen it becomes predictable that in order to make that meeting even more effective it will be shelled by the “Ukrainian fascists”.
At the moment modern Russia can’t offer the world nothing but its natural resources and…propaganda. Propaganda is the only branch which is actually in blossom in Russia. That’s why everybody who would watch Russian TV and read Russian news web-pages should be very vigilant and not to take on faith what one hears or sees.