New aggravation of the situation around Ukraine. The main thing

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The HEAD of the DPR, Denis Pushilin, announced a general mobilization. He called on the men in the reserve to come to the military commissariats. Later, mobilization was announced in the LPR.

The Ministry of Emergency Situations of the DPR reported that 6,603 people were evacuated to RUSSIA from the unrecognized republic, including 2,436 children. The LPR announced the departure of 25 thousand residents, specifying that these people did not leave the republic from the moment of evacuation.

Observers from the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission registered 870 ceasefire violations in Donbass per day. The data is given for February 17, the day before the self-proclaimed DPR and LPR announced the start of the evacuation of the population.

NATO, due to the aggravation of the situation with Russia and Ukraine, is increasing the level of readiness of the rapid reaction forces, dpa learned. Meanwhile, the British authorities decided, following the US, to move the embassy from Kiev to Lvov.

On the night of February 19, 1.2 thousand residents of Donbass arrived in the Rostov region, the region received 5 billion rubles from the budget. for payments to refugees. Readiness to accept refugees was also expressed by Crimea, Chelyabinsk, Penza, Kaluga and Vladimir regions.

US President Joseph Biden said that an attack by Russian troops on Ukraine could happen "in the coming weeks" and even "in the coming days." Speaking at a briefing at the White House, he said he was convinced that Russian President Vladimir Putin had already decided to invade. According to the American president, it is not too late to return to the negotiations and the door for diplomacy is open.

French President Emmanuel Macron intends to hold telephone conversations on the situation in Ukraine with Russian and Ukrainian presidents Vladimir Putin and Vladimir Zelensky. As AFP reported, citing the Elysee Palace, Macron's conversation with Zelensky is scheduled for Saturday, with Putin - for Sunday. Paris also said that they see no signs of a withdrawal of Russian troops from the border with Ukraine and are concerned about reports of explosions in the Donbass.

US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken accepted an offer to meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. As White House press secretary Jen Psaki said at a briefing, the meeting will take place on Wednesday, February 23. Psaki clarified that Blinken would be open to talks with Lavrov if Russia did not launch an invasion of Ukraine. “We are going to leave the door open for diplomacy,” Psaki said.

The White House has abandoned plans to disconnect Russia from the SWIFT interbank information exchange system, this measure will not be included in the new package of US sanctions against Russia. Duleep Singh, Deputy Assistant to the President of the United States for National Security, said the sanctions will also not affect energy exports. At the same time, according to the official, Russia will face "enormous consequences" for the economy and the strategic position in the world if it invades Ukraine.

State Duma Chairman Vyacheslav Volodin accused Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky of taking steps that could provoke a big war. In the TELEGRAM channel, Volodin wrote that Zelensky would not have gone for it “without outside support” and blamed the US for the escalation of the situation. The speaker of the State Duma said that in the event of a war, Europe would become its main arena.

In Luhansk, a gas pipeline caught fire after a strong explosion, emergency teams are working on the spot. According to "Luganskinformtsentr", perhaps we are talking about the explosion of the gas pipeline. With reference to eyewitnesses, the information center reports that the fire is located in the area of ​​the Gorizont plant at the gas distribution unit. RIA Novosti, citing its correspondent, writes that the gas pipeline is on fire. Luganskgaz reported that there were two explosions, and the cause was sabotage.

The authorities of the Rostov region have introduced a high alert regime in the region due to the evacuation of residents from the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics (DPR and LPR). As RBC was told in the press service of the regional government, the regime has been in effect since the evening of February 18. An operational headquarters has also been created in the region to resolve issues related to the arrival of Donbass residents.

A working group has been sent to the Rostov Region under the leadership of Acting Head of the Ministry of Emergency Situations Alexander Chupriyan. Also, the head of Rospotrebnadzor Anna Popova and specialists from the Ministry of HEALTH flew to the region. As reported in the Telegram of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, the department intends to provide all the checkpoints at the border with "places of heating and necessary medical care." Popova stated that Russia is ready to vaccinate refugees against covid-19 .

Temporary accommodation centers for refugees for 3,274 places have been deployed in the Rostov Region. “In the coming hours, the number of places for accommodation is planned to be increased to 10,000. Catering and medical care are organized at the places of accommodation,” the regional administration told RBC Rostov.

The leadership of the unrecognized Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics announced a mass evacuation of residents to Russia on Friday evening. As the head of the DPR Denis Pushilin announced, women, children and the elderly are the first to leave the DPR. It is planned to evacuate about 700 thousand people from the DPR, the local Ministry of Emergency Situations said. The head of the LPR, Leonid Pasechnik, also announced the evacuation and called on men capable of holding weapons in their hands to stand up for the LPR.

Vladimir Putin instructed to pay 10,000 rubles to each refugee from Donbass.

Pushilin claims that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will soon order the army to attack the DPR and LPR. According to him, the attack will happen in the coming days. In an interview with the Rossiya 24 TV channel, Pushilin said that in recent days there has been evidence of an imminent offensive by the Ukrainian army: demining areas on the line of contact, the accumulation of troops.

Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valery Zaluzhny said that Kyiv did not even consider the scenario of an invasion of the Donbass, since this operation would lead to numerous casualties among the civilian population.

Against the backdrop of these reports, the DOLLAR exchange rate exceeded 77 rubles, the euro - 87.5 rubles. The Moscow Exchange Index fell 2.8% to 3412.

The German Defense Ministry announced that it has increased the level of readiness of its troops as part of NATO's rapid reaction force in the event of an escalation in Ukraine.

US President Joe Biden on Saturday night (0:00 Moscow time) will make a speech at the White House on the situation around Ukraine. An hour and a half earlier, at 22:30 Moscow time Friday, Biden is scheduled to have a telephone conversation “with transatlantic leaders.”

New escalation around Ukraine

On Friday afternoon, the DPR authorities announced attempts by Ukrainian special forces to organize sabotage at enterprises. Among them is a chemical plant in Gorlovka. Also in Donetsk, they claimed that the Ukrainian army plans to deliver the main blow on the Svetlodarskaya Bulge in order to cut the lines of communication between Donetsk and Lugansk.

The RIA Novosti agency reported at about 19:00 Moscow time about a powerful explosion a few dozen meters from the DPR government building. Later, the People's Militia of the DPR reported that a car exploded in the parking lot. The head of the People's Militia, Denis Sinenkov, said that it was his UAZ.

Chairman of the Investigative Committee Oleksandr Bastrykin instructed the Main Investigation Department to open a criminal case after the car explosion in Donetsk. The Investigative Committee will try to find "those involved in actions that endanger the life and health of the population of Donbass, in order to violate the peaceful coexistence of states and peoples, as well as to record evidence of their crimes."

In a joint statement, the DPR and LPR Foreign Ministries reported that they had refused Kyiv's proposals to hold an extraordinary meeting of the contact group on the settlement in Donbass.

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmitry Kuleba on his Twitter said that Kyiv does not plan any attack on the republics of Donbass. According to him, Ukraine is counting on a diplomatic settlement of the conflict. He called statements from Donetsk and Luhansk part of “Russian propaganda”.

Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council Alexei Danilov also said that there were no orders "to liberate the territories" by force. In his opinion, they are trying to provoke Ukraine into hostilities.

Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister - Minister for the Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories Irina Vereshchuk called on the residents of Donbass to go to the territory under the control of Kyiv.

On behalf of Volodymyr Zelensky, Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, Deputy Prime Minister Vereshchuk, as well as deputies of the Verkhovna Rada on Saturday, February 19, will go to the front line in Donbass. Zelensky himself is expected to be in Munich that day. He is scheduled to speak at the Munich Security Conference there.