KYIV / OSLO (VG) The Russian-backed breakaway republics in eastern Ukraine claim they have started a mass evacuation of the population. Ukraine and the United States warn against misinformation.
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The leaders of the so-called People’s Republics of Donetsk and Luhansk announced on Friday that they will start evacuating citizens of Russia, because they claim that they believe Ukraine is planning an attack.
Ukraine’s defense chief Valery Zaluzhnyji says there are no plans to attack areas controlled by separatists and warns against believing in what he calls lies about the situation.
Late Friday night, US President Joe Biden also points out that Russia has made false allegations that Ukraine will launch an attack on the breakaway republics in the Donbass area.
Denies attack plans
Residents of Donetsk that VG has been in contact with on Friday, tell about buses that are being prepared for evacuation and long queues in front of shops and pharmacies.
– There is panic here in Donetsk, writes «Dima», a man in his 20s, to VG.
Russia has indirect control in Donetsk and Luhansk, which are located in the Donbass region.
The leader of the Donetsk Denis Pushilin claims that he has an agreement with the Russian leadership that they will prepare shelters for evacuees in the Rostov region of southwestern Russia.
–At 5 pm on Friday, Reuters reports that Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered the Russian emergency minister to travel to the Rostov region.
Pushilin said he believed Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky was planning to launch an offensive and that the army would bomb cities in the separatist areas of southeastern Ukraine.
This refutes Ukraine.
– Ukraine has no such plans in Donbass. We are fully committed to a diplomatic solution, Ukraine’s Defense Minister Dmytro Kuleba replied Twitter.
Separatist leaders in Donetsk claim they are planning to evacuate 700,000 to Russia. Geir Hågen Karlsen, who is a lieutenant colonel and head teacher of strategic communication at the Norwegian Defense College, says to Aftenposten that it is «completely unlikely that 700,000 people will be evacuated».
– They say 700,000 are about to be evacuated, but what we get presented by TV pictures are only of a few buses, he says to the newspaper.
The newspaper Guardian writes that the breakaway republics’ reports of mass evacuation have increased fears that Russia is trying to prepare the ground for a possible invasion of Ukraine.
The VG talks to in Donbass, says that they have not observed any very large flow of people.
“Dima” writes to VG that he himself does not want to evacuate, but will take out money and always travel with his passport, in case he has to get out of the area quickly. Then he will travel to Russia.
“Olga” in Donetsk writes in her message to VG also about panic:
– People withdraw money from ATMs, stock up on food and fill their cars with petrol.
–– Must keep calm
“Olga” is afraid to use her real name for fear of the consequences, like the others VG has interviewed. The Russian-backed areas have become increasingly authoritarian.
A third resident VG is in contact with on Friday night, writes that she is celebrating her birthday with her grandmother. They have no plans to flee, but confirm that more are doing just that.
– I keep calm, and I am with my family. It’s important to me, and the rest I do not care so much. We must remain calm, writes “Yulia” to VG.
–Ukraine’s Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov also emphasizes that neither an attack on eastern Ukraine nor the Crimean peninsula is planned.
Will not be provoked
– We will not do any of the things the Russians are trying to provoke us to do, the Minister of Defense said on Friday in the Ukrainian National Assembly.
Read more about the region here: Russia’s “Trojan horses” in Ukraine
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken calls the allegation of an impending military offensive an attempt by Russia to create “false provocations” that could justify future Russian “aggression”.
This was rejected in Moscow, where President Vladimir Putin on Friday expressed great concern over developments in eastern Ukraine and called on Ukraine to go into direct meetings with the separatists.
–Refuses negotiations
– All Kyiv needs to do is sit down at the negotiating table with Donbass representatives and agree on political, military, economic and humanitarian measures that can end the conflict. The faster it happens, the better, Putin said in Moscow, according to ABC News.
Ukraine has refused, because the country sees the separatists as puppets for the Kremlin and believes negotiations will legitimize Moscow’s claim that the conflict is exclusively a civil war in which Russia is not involved.
Reuters writes that President Putin has ordered the Russian government to provide board and lodging for people arriving in Russia from the breakaway republics of eastern Ukraine.
Putin is also said to have ordered that every citizen who comes from Donbass be paid 10,000 rubles in cash, which is equivalent to almost 1200 Norwegian kroner.
The last few days have pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainian government forces accused each other of being behind new attacks in the Donbass area.
“I interpret these messages first and foremost as a possible justification for a Russian intervention,” NUPI researcher Jakub Godzimirski told VG on Thursday.
He thinks the breakaway republics are like that «Trojan horses in Ukraine».
– Pretext for full war
Lieutenant Colonel at the War School Palle Ydstebø outlines to VG two main reasons why the conflict in eastern Ukraine has become so heated in recent days:
- Russia is rebuilding the conflict to get a pretext to go to full war against Ukraine.
- There is pressure to mislead and create division in NATO and put pressure on Ukraine.
–Russia has in recent days claimed that the country has stepped down, by recalling soldiers from the fronts in Belarus and on the Crimean peninsula.
At a press conference with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko on Friday, Vladimir Putin stated that the military exercises are only defensive.
– They are not a threat to any other country, the Russian president emphasized.
More soldiers at the border
But the main force at Ukraine’s border in the northeast seems to have increased:
The United States estimates on Friday that Russia has deployed up to 190,000 troops near the Ukrainian border, Reuters reports. The number on January 30 is said to have been 100,000 soldiers.
On the annual Security Conference in Munich UN Secretary-General António Guterres said only a small misunderstanding between major powers could now have catastrophic consequences:
“When I am asked if we are in a new Cold War, I answer that the threat to global security is more complex and probably higher than during the Cold War,” said the Secretary-General.
US President Joe Biden will give an update on the situation in Ukraine at 22 Norwegian time on Friday night, the White House informs.
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