Kiev Plans False Flag Missile Strikes on Mass Gatherings in Western Ukraine on 8 May – MoD

The strike will be carried out using Tochka-U missiles, which Russia has repeatedly said it had retired a while ago, despite Kiev erroneously claiming otherwise.

The Russian Defence Ministry has stated that Ukrainian forces are planning a false flag operation involving missile strikes at gatherings of civilians in the Lvov and Volyn regions in Ukraine's west. The ministry said that the goal of this operation is to falsely accuse Russia of causing civilian deaths.

"The Kiev regime plans to carry out yet another sophisticated provocation involving the death of civilians in the western regions of the country on May 8 during the Day of Remembrance and Reconciliation celebrated in Ukraine instead of the Victory Day […] It will be carried out in order to accuse the Russian Armed Forces of indiscriminate missile strikes", the ministry said.

The ministry elaborated that Ukrainian forces will be using Tochka-U missiles for this purpose. Kiev has repeatedly accused Moscow of firing these missiles at Ukrainian civilian targets, but Moscow strongly denied these accusations, noting that the Russian Armed Forces stopped using Tochka-U missiles a long time ago, unlike its Ukrainian counterpart.

Russia has repeatedly stressed that its forces are only targeting military installations in Ukraine as they carry out the special military operation. Moscow accused Kiev's forces of hitting civilian infrastructure to delay Russian forces' advance and later accuse them of damaging these targets.