Russia accuses Ukraine of escalating the situation in the Donbas
On October 18, the State Duma of the Russian Federation adopted a statement on the aggravated situation in Ukraine.
In this small document in several paragraphs, Ukraine is accused of killing the leader of the so called Donetsk People's Republic (DPR), Alexander Zakharchenko, tearing apart Orthodoxy, ignoring the "will of the fraternal Russian and Ukrainian peoples” in connection with the decision to terminate the Friendship Treaty and, in general, anti-Russian politics.
“The State Duma is confident that an attempt of a new large-scale military offensive by Ukraine in the Donbas together with the new facts of murders and terrorist acts against the local people will receive a measured response. It’s not too late to stop,” reads the statement of the Russian Duma.
The statement comes amid the reports of the deployment of Russian equipment and military to the Donbas.
On October 12, the OSCE special monitoring mission (SMM) reported on the convoys of Russian equipment moving through the uncontrolled stretch of the Ukrainian border into the Donbas.
“In the area near the Donetsk region not controlled by the government [of Ukraine] close to the Russian border an SMM long-range unmanned aerial vehicle again discovered a convoy of trucks that drove along a dirt road in the middle of the night, where there are no border checkpoints. One of the trucks was carrying an anti-aircraft system,” said the OSCE SMM.