Donetsk Oblast: The head of the Donetsk People's Republic has called on all able-bodied men to stand up to "Kiev's aggression"
"I urge compatriots who are in the [army] reserve to come to military enlistment offices," DPR head Denis Pushilin said in a video address. "I call on all men in the republic capable of carrying arms to stand in defense of their families, their children, wives, mothers."
Pushilin also claimed the DPR is capable of "holding off Kiev's aggression" and alleged that its forces are taking action in response to shelling by the Ukrainian Army.
LPR leader Leonid Pasechnik has issued a similar mobilization order.
The DPR said that Kiev began shelling villages along the frontline with heavy artillery on Thursday, and that the barrage had continued throughout Friday and on Saturday morning.
The Ukrainian military, meanwhile, accused the DPR of violating the ceasefire dozens of times on Friday and shelling multiple villages in Kiev-controlled areas.
Alexey Danilov, the secretary of Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council, denied that Kiev was planning to attack the DPR and the neighboring LPR.
Claiming that they fear further escalation, the two breakaway regions announced they would begin evacuating civilians to Russia on Friday.
Evgeny Katsavalov, a senior government official in Lugansk, claimed that 25,000 people have previously left the LPR for Russia. He added that the authorities are in the process of organizing the evacuation of an additional 10,000 residents.
Emergency services in the DPR said that more than 6,600 people, including 2,400 children, have been evacuated as of Saturday morning, but these numbers have not been verified by Moscow.
Gas company comments on blast amid escalation in eastern Ukraine
A gas company from the self-proclaimed Lugansk People's Republic (LPR) in eastern Ukraine has said that the blasts at a local pipeline were manmade.
"After assessing the damage, [we can say] that the cause of explosions is a sabotage," Tatyana Bogorodko, the director of Luganskgaz, said on Saturday.
The first blast was reported in the village of Malaya Vergunka outside Lugansk shortly after midnight. The second explosion occurred at a pipeline in Lugansk itself around half an hour later, the company said, adding that dozens of homes have been cut off from the gas supply.
Officials in the LPR and the neighboring Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) reported massive shelling and explosions on Friday and early Saturday morning.
DPR military spokesman Eduard Basurin told reporters that roughly 200 shells were fired by Kiev on Friday, while the breakaway region's forces prevented three diversions. He added that the shelling occurred in many places across the frontline separating DPR forces from the Ukrainian Army.
DPR officials said that a pumping station was damaged by mortar shells, while RIA Novosti reported that artillery fire from the Ukrainian side destroyed a railway connecting Donetsk with Debaltsevo.
Fearing further escalation, the authorities in Donetsk and Lugansk began the evacuation of civilians to Russia on Friday. Both republics declared mobilization on Saturday.
The Ukrainian military said the "Russian occupation forces" - a term they use to describe the DPR and LPR - violated the ceasefire 66 times on Friday, shelling multiple places along the frontline.
Comment: Ukraine, like its masters in the US, have been caught out repeatedly lying and backtracking, so their claims are provably reliable.
Alexey Danilov, the secretary of Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council, denied that Kiev is planning a full-blown assault on the breakaway regions. "There are no orders to liberate our territories by force," Danilov told reporters at a press conference on Friday, adding that the move would result in "major civilian casualties."
"That's why such an order can't be issued in our country," he said.
Comment: Indeed, were Kiev to attack the Donbas then Russia would intervene to protect them from the ongoing genocide; because, although it doesn't receive much coverage by the 'legacy' media, at least 13,000 people have died since the beginning of the conflict back in 2014.
That said, whilst Ukraine might not want to sacrifice itself for the West, the West is desperate to provoke Russia into making a move so it can justify further sanctions and isolation from the international community, and so it is unlikely to give up antagonizing Russia via its vassal anytime soon: 'Russian troops dismember the armed forces of Ukraine': how a war between Moscow & Kiev could play out, and why it won't happen
Reports of cross-border fire come amid continuing tensions between Russia and NATO regarding Ukraine. US President Joe Biden said on Friday night that Moscow was "planning to and intend to attack Ukraine in the coming week - in the coming days."
Russia has repeatedly denied plans to attack its neighbor and accused the West of stirring up tensions.
I can't underestand why you post OLD NEWS.....