According to confirmed data, Kiev is preparing a provocation to accuse Russia of an alleged mass murder of civilians in Irpen in the Kiev region, Russian Defence Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said.
"I draw your attention to the fact that units of the Russian Armed Forces left this settlement more than a week ago", Konashenkov said.
The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) plans to bring the bodies of those killed by Ukrainian shelling to Irpen for a staged incident, while the SBU is also organising another staged incident in the Pushcha-Voditsa forest involving the "destruction" of a “Russian reconnaissance group”, Igor Konashenkov said.
"SBU officers plan to bring the bodies of local residents killed by Ukrainian artillery shelling from the morgue to the basement of one of the buildings on the eastern outskirts of Irpen. Then, a staged action will be organised in the Pushcha-Voditsa forest area with staged ‘shooting’ and the ‘destruction’ of a ‘Russian intelligence group’ that arrived in Irpen ‘to kill witnesses of Russian war crimes’”, the general said.
He specified that "the bodies of captured Russian servicemen, previously killed by nationalists under torture, will be presented in the forest as "indisputable evidence."
Konashenkov added that a provocation in Irpen has been organised in order to distribute video material through Western media.
On 8 April, the Russian defence ministry said that the Ukrainian forces had fired a Tochka-U missile at Kramatorsk train station from Dobropilya settlement located 45 kilometres (28 miles) southwest of Kramatorsk. The purpose of Kiev's attack on railway station in Kramatorsk was to disrupt mass evacuation to use residents as a human shield, the ministry added. In order to accuse Russia of an alleged missile attack on Kramatorsk railway station, Kiev uploaded to social networks photos of Tochka-U launchers from the Allied Resolve 2022 Russia-Belarus joint military exercises, which were hosted in February, the defence ministry said.
Earlier, Kiev accused Russian troops of killings hundreds in Bucha distributing photos of bodies of alleged victims in the western media. In turn, Russian Defence Ministry rejected the accusations and stated that the photos and videos had been staged pointing at the fact that the footage emerged only four days after Russian troops' withdrawal from the city.
The Russian Defence Ministry had repeatedly noted that similar provocations will take place in the future.
On 24 February, Russia launched a military operation in Ukraine after the breakaway republics of Donetsk and Lugansk appealed for help in defending themselves against Ukrainian provocations. The Russian Ministry of Defence said the operation is targeting Ukrainian military infrastructure only and the civilian population is not in danger.
In response, Western countries and their allies rolled out a comprehensive sanctions campaign against Moscow, which includes airspace closures and restrictive measures targeting numerous Russian officials and entities, media and financial institutions.
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