Moscow/Kyiv - Russia-backed rebels in Ukraine accused government forces of shelling a village on Friday. Russian media reported more infantry and tank units were returning to their bases in contrast to Western fears of an imminent Russian invasion.
For a second consecutive day, pro-Russian separatists who have been at war with Ukraine for years said they had come under mortar and artillery fire from Ukrainian forces, according to the Interfax news agency. Kyiv and the rebels blamed each other for of shelling and other ceasefire violations on Friday.
The Kremlin said on Thursday it was "deeply concerned" with the flare-up in Ukraine and was watching the situation closely.
Ukraine and the pro-Russian separatists have had routine violations of ceasefire in the last eight years, but the intensity of fighting increased notably this week.
Leaders condemn rebel attacks
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy tweeted that the kindergarten shelling “by pro-Russian forces is a big provocation.”
U.S. President Joe Biden on Thursday said Russia is preparing a pretext to justify a possible attack on Ukraine, whose ambition to one day join the NATO military alliance has angered Moscow. Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg also warned of "a pretext for an armed attack".
China, a key Russian ally, accused Washington of “playing up and sensationalizing the crisis and escalating tensions.”
British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said the West has seen “an increase of troops over the last 48 hours, up to 7,000.” That squared with what a U.S. administration official said a day earlier.
Germany's foreign minister has accused Russia of putting peace at risk with Cold War-like diplomacy, urging Moscow to take "serious steps towards de-escalation" of the Ukraine crisis.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, told diplomats at the U.N. Security Council that a sudden, seemingly violent event staged by Russia to justify an invasion would kick off the assault.
Russia says it has no intention to invade Ukraine and accuses the West of hysteria over its military build-up, saying some of its troops have returned to bases.
Interfax news agency cited Russia's defence ministry as saying on Friday that several Russian mechanised infantry units had returned to their bases in the regions of Dagestan and Chechnya after completing drills in Crimea. A train loaded with tanks also departed an undisclosed location to return to their base in the Nizhny Novgorod province. TASS news agency carried a similar report about troops returning to their base.
Western leaders however say Russia remains capable of launching an invasion at any time.
More Diplomatic efforts
Diplomatic efforts will continue on Friday when Biden hosts a call with the leaders of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Romania, Britain, the European Union and NATO.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will meet counterparts at the Munich Security Conference. He will also discuss the crisis late next week with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, the State Department said.
On Thursday, Russia sent a formal response to US proposals for negotiation in the crisis which both offered a potential route to diplomacy and threatened further action.
Washington said it would respond to Moscow's "unprovoked" move to expel U.S. Deputy Chief of Mission Bart Gorman. Russian diplomats who have stayed longer than three years must leave the United States, while Moscow is giving U.S. diplomats less time, a State Department spokesperson said.
By Thursday evening, U.S. and European officials were on high alert for any Russian attempts to create a pretext for invasion, according to a Western official familiar with intelligence findings. Ukrainian government officials shared intelligence with allies that suggested the Russians might try to shell the Luhansk area in the disputed Donbas region on Friday morning as part of an effort to create a false reason to take military action.
The latest satellite images provided by the US space technology company Maxar show that wide-scale Russian military activity persists close to Ukraine's borders, despite recent Russian claims of de-escalation and withdrawal.
-Reuters/AP/BBC