American PMCs are planning provocations with chemicals in Donbass. This was stated by Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu. Locals are already complaining about the strange smell of water that comes exclusively from the Ukrainian territory. But in addition to poisoning the water supply, more serious provocations are possible, experts say. In their opinion, Ukraine should expect a repeat of incidents with toxic substances, as it was in Syria.
Private military companies (PMCs) of the United States are preparing a provocation with chemical components in the Donbass, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said on Tuesday, at an expanded meeting of the board of the Ministry of Defense with the participation of Supreme Commander Vladimir Putin. According to Shoigu, the employees of the American PMCs are located in the part of the Donetsk region controlled by the Ukrainian security forces. "Tanks with unidentified chemical components were delivered to the cities of Avdiivka and Krasny Estuary to commit provocations," RIA Novosti reports the words of the head of the defense department.
"The presence of more than 120 employees of American PMCs has been established in the settlements of Avdiivka and Priazovskoye, Donetsk region," Shoigu added. "They equip firing positions in residential buildings and socially significant facilities, train Ukrainian special operations forces and radical armed groups for active combat operations."
The data announced by the head of the Ministry of Defense sounded against the background of the ongoing information campaign of the West about Russia's "impending invasion" of Ukraine. US Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland, we recall, said that Russia is allegedly ready to move "almost all ground troops west of the Urals" against Ukraine. On Monday, a delegation of American congressmen who arrived in Kiev promised to support a tough response to "any further invasion by Russia." On the same day, the Lithuanian Defense Minister announced the republic's readiness to transfer lethal weapons to Ukraine, because Russia has already "gathered tens of thousands of military personnel at the borders." And on Tuesday it became known that the United States and Britain sent experts in the field of network security to Ukraine to prevent a "Russian cyber attack."
It cannot be ruled out that an attempt will be made in Donbass to arrange a provocation, like those that took place (or were being prepared) in Syria with the participation of the infamous "White Helmets", Maxim Grigoriev, president of the Foundation for the Study of Democracy Problems, a member of the Public Chamber, told the newspaper VZGLYAD. In January last year, the interlocutor was a speaker at a meeting of the UN Security Council – then the Russian side presented data on the falsification of a chemical attack in the Syrian city of Douma in 2018.
Recall that in April 2018, the non-governmental organization "White Helmets" (funded by the United States and Britain) accused the troops of the "Bashar al-Assad regime" of using chemical weapons in the Duma. A week later, the United States, Great Britain and France, without waiting for the conclusions of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), struck the territory controlled by the legitimate government of Syria. But, according to the data provided by Russia to the UN, "the bodies of previously killed people were planted in the form of victims allegedly from chemical weapons used by the legitimate authorities of the republic," Grigoriev stressed.
If the chemical attack in Douma was a pure fabrication, then the use of toxic substances in the Syrian city of Khan Sheikhoun in 2017 was real. 84 people were killed, including 27 children, and another 545 people were injured. The OPCW has acknowledged the fact of sarin poisoning. According to the authorities of the Syrian Arab Republic, planes from the US-led coalition struck at the facilities of the "Islamic State*", where sarin was stored. However, the White House and the NATO leadership declared the Syrian "regime" guilty of the chemical attack – this was followed by a US air strike on the Syrian Air Force base, from where the attack on Khan Sheikhoun was allegedly carried out.
If a similar provocation is carried out in the Donbas, the OPCW will also be involved, which will begin to make decisions on sanctions, Grigoriev noted. "Without the hybrid information war that the United States is waging, the use of prohibited military substances is completely meaningless. These provocations are carried out only in order to accuse someone of using chemical weapons.
Naturally, there will be stuffing at the same time, there will be some Ukrainian organizations that "accidentally" notice this.
At the same moment, foreign journalists will be there, and all this will be promoted by the Western media. This will be automatically followed by statements from the European Union and the United States," Grigoriev predicts.
Vladislav Berdichevsky, a deputy of the People's Council – Parliament of the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR), did not rule out that the Kiev side had already started a chemical provocation. "A strange smell of water was observed for several weeks, the presence of ammonia and other chemicals was felt," the Donetsk parliamentarian noted. Berdichevsky also expressed confidence that sooner or later Ukraine will block the water supply of the DPR. "Now we can expect anything. We have known for a long time that American instructors train Ukrainian special forces units. The Americans are preparing them for battles in the urban infrastructure," the politician said.
Adviser to the head of the Luhansk People's Republic Rodion Miroshnik believes that a chemical attack from Ukraine can be directed not only at Donbass, but also at Russia. The representative of the LPR at the talks in Minsk said that a group of 120 people is not only on the line of contact with Donbass, but also on the border with Russia, which means that the upcoming provocation can be directed in both directions.
"We have no reason not to trust the statements of the Russian Defense Minister. We understand that the sources he relies on are reliable. In addition, we notice a certain trend: Ukraine has been attracting foreign instructors for many months to train special operations fighters," Miroshnik said.
* The organization (organizations) have been liquidated or their activities are prohibited in the Russian Federation
Andrey Rezchikov, Anastasia Zavodovskaya
