Head of the Donetsk People's Republic Denis PushilinMOSCOW, Feb. 12 An explosion in Donbas on Saturday could have happened on the set of a provocative video by the Ukrainian side, said the head of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic Denis Pushilin on the Soloviev Live YouTube channel.
"There was an explosion, it was heard in some areas of Donetsk. But we quickly found out everything, because, of course, we keep the situation under control. <…> The explosion occurred on the territory controlled by Ukraine, about one and a half kilometers from the line of contact, near the village of Opytnoye. What exploded is unclear. Visibility is poor, fog prevented our servicemen from finding out what really happened there. For our part, we do not exclude that this may be some kind of provocation that was filmed by journalists, or something else".
Denis PushilingHead of the DNRThe head of the republic added that nothing followed the explosion. He also noted that the incident was not related to the Bayraktar drone. According to Pushilin, Ukrainian journalists tried to find out what happened, but the Armed Forces of Ukraine declined to comment. />Slovenia, North Macedonia and Montenegro called on citizens to leave Ukraine. The head of the DPR also stressed that US representatives in the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission had already collected things and equipment, they were waiting for the command to leave the conflict zone. «This will be a fairly significant signal that Ukraine is ready for a provocation. This will be a strong signal that Ukraine is ready to move on to offensive operations,» he added. Pushilin noted that the DPR authorities are aware of social infrastructure facilities where foreign mercenaries can sabotage. At the same time, he added that «so far there has been no active activity, there has been no breakthrough on our territory, and this is even more alarming.» According to a RIA Novosti correspondent, a distant pop, similar to an explosion, was heard in Donetsk on Saturday. It is emphasized that the situation in the city is calm, no sirens are heard and there are no pockets of smoke. Now half of the entire personnel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine is in the Donbass. Western countries are sending military instructors and weapons to Ukraine, which directly violates the Minsk agreements and negatively affects the settlement of the situation. The United States, Great Britain, Canada, France, Poland, Turkey, Lithuania, Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Romania, Estonia participate in deliveries totaling billions of dollars. » />When the US sets fire to Donbass