Ukraine Military Denies Plans for Offensive Operations in Separatist Areas

Ukraine’s military denied it had any plans to attack separatist-controlled areas in the country’s east, as leaders in breakaway regions announced evacuations on February 18.

Earlier on Friday, officials in the Russian-backed People’s Republic of Donetsk said that they had stopped an attack by Ukrainian saboteurs, a claim then circulated by Russian media and denied by Kyiv.

In a statement following those reports, Ukraine’s military chief Valeriy Zaluzhnyi said there was no truth to the allegations. Zaluzhnyi also said that the Ukrainian military had no plans to launch attacks on separatist-controlled areas. He said Russia was “deliberately misleading” local residents in the Donbass region. Credit: Ukrainian Military via Storyful