Conflict in Donbass heats up as NATO troops allegedly killed

Special mission chief monitor to Ukraine, for the Organisation for Security and Co-operation (OSCE), Alexander Hug left the conflict zone on Thursday due to a “serious deterioration of the security situation,” AFP reported.

The Canadian Department of National Defence and the Canadian Armed Forces meanwhile told CTV News that there were no Canadians injured or killed as part of a NATO deployment in Ukraine.

A Russian-language website reported that three NATO servicemen from Canada were killed by a landmine near Avdeyevka, a Ukrainian community near the Russian border and that two American soldiers were injured in the same blast.

Rossiiskaiia Gazeta, the official organ of the Government of the Russian Federation, shared the news. “The Ukrainian command intends passing off this accident as an attack committed by our reconnaissance unit,” the separatists said in a statement.

The DPR’s military intelligence reported at least two days before the minefield explosion that the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ command had been busy preparing a provocation involving NATO troops. It seems that the Canadians were deliberately sent into the minefield to blame Western troop deaths on DPR military sabotage, spokesman for the Donetsk People’s Republic’s army, Eduard Basurin told reporters.

NATO troops are not officially supposed to be in Donbass, but are undeniably, directly involved in the armed conflict, according to Basurin.

“According to our information, a team of foreign inspectors who arrived in the conflict zone in Donbass on April 15 is a key cause of the deterioration of the situation at the contact line,” the Donetsk News Agency reported.

According to Basurin, aggravation is observed exactly at those contact line sections where inspectors are deployed. He said that evidence was being collected to prove NATO’s involvement in military crimes committed by the Ukrainian army.

Ukrainian and separatist forces reported casualties over the last week as heavy weapons, once removed under the Minsk accords, were redeployed by Kiev. Separatists reported two dead and one wounded from Ukrainian army shelling in the village of Gorlivka, while Ukrainian forces reported being attacked with Grad rocket launchers, with at least seven casualties.

Civilians were also killed and wounded in the village of Troitsky in Luhansk.

The Trump administration has cleared large-caliber sniper rifles, and Javelin anti-tank missiles among other supplies to Kiev. Additional sanctions have also been applied on Russian citizens and entities over the bogus Skripal poisoning, and alleged Russian cyber efforts.

Ukraine recently declared the conflict had moved from an “anti-terrorist” operation, to a war for territorial integrity against another state. Kiev is also furious about the completion of the Kerch Strait bridge linking Russia to Crimea, repeating accusations against Russia of an “annexation” of Crimea.

But Crimea has been part of Russia before the USA even existed as a country and it has been a part of the Byzantine-Russian space half a millennium before Columbus set out on his discoveries.