Russia Says It Killed 5 “Saboteurs” After Ukrainian Armored Vehicles Breached Its Territory

In what provides Russia an ‘opportunity’ to pull the trigger on overt intervention in eastern Ukraine (assuming it’s actually desiring to do so), rebel leaders in the breakaway Donetsk region on Monday urged Moscow’s urgent military help amid worsening shelling from Ukrainian national forces, and as fighting escalates along the line of contact.

This as Interfax in a breaking reports cites Russian officials who say five “saboteurs” were killed by border guards as they attempted to enter Russia’s territory. Though details are as yet unconfirmed at this early point, Russia’s military says Ukrainian army vehicles attempted to breach sovereign Russian territory.

RUSSIA SAYS KILLED FIVE PEOPLE WHO TRIED TO VIOLATE BORDER: IFX

The spokesperson’s office of #Russia Southern Military District said two infantry fighting vehicles of the Ukrainian Armed forces entered Russian territory.

— Michael A. Horowitz (@michaelh992) February 21, 2022

And Bloomberg details of the breaking report: 

Russian forces killed five “saboteurs” and destroyed 2 armored personnel carriers of the Ukrainian forces who tried to violate Russian border, Russian army’s Southern Military District says, according to Interfax report/

The separatists are now formally asking Moscow for military and financial assistance against the “Ukrainian attacks”; however, Ukraine’s army is currently denying that it’s conducting offensive operations in the Donbas, according to RT and regional correspondents.

Further the Kremlin is citing what it says is a major escalation, after reports that a Ukrainian shell hit and destroyed a Russian border checkpoint in the Rostov region. The Russian side now says Ukrainian munitions are landing on its sovereign soil, which some say could be used as a casus belli if Putin so chooses. 

According to Russian state sources, Donbas officials and separatist commanders are intensifying their plea for Russian help, which if initiated could crucially in turn trigger heightened NATO intervention in the conflict: 

Speaking to the Solovyov Live YouTube channel on Monday, Eduard Basurin, the spokesman for the Donetsk People’s Militia said that Moscow should provide moral support “first of all,” but that “I would not refuse any – military assistance is also needed, in different forms.”

The official also claimed that there is a war taking place in Donbass, adding, “the situation isn’t just difficult, it is genuinely critical.”

Both breakaway republics began evacuating citizens to Russian territory, announced on Feb.18, citing fears of reprisal attacks by Ukrainian forces, with at this point a believed tens of thousands of civilians having been transferred, mostly via large passenger buses. 

Russia’s RIA says the alleged Ukrainian she’ll hit the Neklinovsky district of Rostov. The nearest Ukrainian positions are some 20 km away, and Russian-installed Donetsk People’s Republic controls the other side of that border. https://t.co/jP4S9osBNh

— Yaroslav Trofimov (@yarotrof) February 21, 2022

One Russian media report cites that about “61,000 residents of the LPR and DPR have crossed the border into Russia as part of evacuation amid escalation in eastern Ukraine.”

If true this would suggest a major logistical operation still in progress amid the rapidly deteriorating security situation in the war-torn Donbas, and still with unprecedented numbers of Russian troops mustered near the border in Russia’s southern regions.