Russia launched a military operation in Ukraine in February, after the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics asked for assistance to defend themselves from attacks by Ukrainian troops.
Col.Gen. Mikhail Mizintsev, head of Russia's National Defence Management Centre, has issued a warning that Ukrainian government, with the help of several Western countries, is preparing to mass murder civilians in order to blame these atrocities on the Russian military and the forces of the Lugansk People's Republic.
In particular, Mizintsev said, foreign media reporters have already arrived at a local hospital in the city of Kremennaya in Severodonetsk District, in order to film a provocation prepared by Ukrainian troops that would involve ambulances coming under fire from forces presented as Russian troops.
He also said that in Belogorovka in the Popasnaynskiy District, "neo- Nazis have booby-trapped chlorine tanks at a local water treatment plant with the intent to blow them up when LPR People's Militia forces approach the town".
And in the village of Ragovka in Kiev Oblast, a provocation that would involve a staged search for a mass grave containing civilians whose killing would be blamed on Russian forces, is going to be performed and filmed.
"In order to lend credence to that provocation, a group of Ukrainian forensic experts and national police officers are going to be involved in the filming process," Mizintsev said.
These actions and provocations perpetrated by Ukrainian authorities, he said, who "once again demonstrate their inhumane attitude towards the fate of the Ukrainian people, and signify an utter disregard for all norms of morality and of the international humanitarian law."