Foto: AP/Scanpix/LETA
9:24 AM, February 19, 2022
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An explosion in the international oil pipeline, Druzhba, erupted on Friday in the eastern Ukrainian city of Luhansk, controlled by pro-Russian separatist militants, Russian media reported.
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Luganskgaz, a company of the self-proclaimed militants of the Lugansk People’s Republic (LTR), said the explosion had caused a fire, which was soon extinguished by the LTR Ministry of Emergency Situations.
The cause of the incident, which is unknown, took place in the village of Vergunk in Malay, within the city limits of Luhansk.
Russian state media reported that another 40 minutes later another explosion took place in Luhansk. A social media account linked to the separatists reported that the explosion took place at a gas station on the outskirts of the city.
Tatansk Bogorodko, general manager of Luganskgaz, stated that “the cause of both explosions is sabotage”.
No one has been reported to have been injured in these explosions.
Ukrainian intelligence said earlier on Friday that pro-Russian forces in Donbass were mining infrastructure to blow it up and accuse Ukraine of terrorist acts.
“Ukraine’s military intelligence has information that Russian special services are mining several social infrastructure facilities in Donetsk with a view to then detonating them,” a statement from Facebook’s Chief Intelligence Department on Facebook said.
The Chief Intelligence Agency noted that “these measures are aimed at destabilizing the temporarily occupied territories and creating grounds for accusing Ukraine of terrorist acts”.
The Public Relations Service of the Main Intelligence Agency called on Donetsk residents not to leave their homes or use public transport.
The Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Valery Zaluzhny, said that the leaders of the criminals “Donetsk People’s Republic” and “Lugansk People’s Republic” were misleading residents of the temporarily occupied Donetsk and Luhansk regions the decoupling of the territories will be carried out only through political diplomacy.
Mikhail Podolak, an adviser to the head of the Ukrainian president’s office, said on Friday that the “republics” of Donbass were currently operating on a systemic provocation program that had been developed earlier.
Video reports by pro-Russian militant leaders in Donbass talking about the need to evacuate the population because of Kiev’s threats were recorded on Wednesday, two days before they were made public, Insider reported, citing the Bellingcat project of international investigative journalism.
“It is possible that the occupiers will shoot the” evacuation “columns themselves in order to then accuse Ukraine. We state unequivocally: The Ukrainian army is not preparing for an attack and is not planning any strikes on Donetsk or Luhansk, “Podolak said. “Therefore, the responsibility for the provocations and possible casualties will lie with the Russian side, which has 100% control over what is happening in the occupied territories.”
The US government said earlier on Friday that the evacuation of civilians in pro-Russian militias controlled by eastern Ukraine was a cynical move by Moscow to divert attention from Russia’s preparations for an invasion of Ukraine.
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