LUGANSK, January 31. /TASS/. Kiev’s intelligence services, supported by the West, are concocting a disinformation crusade to accuse the Donbass republics and Russia of aggression against Ukraine, Head of the Directorate of the Lugansk People’s Republic's (LPR) People’s Militia Yan Leshchenko said on Monday.

"Our intelligence services have managed to obtain reliable data on a special disinformation crusade being organized code-named Crushing Sword by Kiev’s special services, supported by the West. This campaign aims to mislead the global community, accusing the Donbass republics and Russia of aggression against Ukraine," Leshchenko said in a statement posted on Monday on the LPR’s People’s Militia’s Telegram channel.

The LPR official also said that Kiev prepared staged TV segments within the framework of the disinformation campaign. "At the first stage of this information crusade with the onset of aggression by the Ukrainian Armed Forces, plans are in store to televise staged video segments put together earlier on the alleged beginning of military actions against Ukraine by the people’s republics and the Russian Federation," Leshchenko noted.

Furthermore, according to the chief of the People’s Militia directorate, "[Kiev] is planning to show some staged videos on TV, where specially trained people, on behalf of civilians, will talk about the ‘horrors of war’, asking to free them from Russian oppression."

Leshchenko also said that Kiev’s propagandists were working to justify the Ukrainian army’s actions, saying that they were allegedly liberating Donbass from ‘terrorists’. "Ukraine is planning to demonstrate that its army is successfully countering the imaginary aggression of [Donbass] residents and carrying out an offensive against the People’s republics. <…> The civilian casualties will be presented as the elimination of terrorists," the LPR official mentioned.

Earlier, Leshchenko stated that the Ukrainian army was plotting to attack Donbass, carefully concealing the build-up of its troops. At the same time, the chief of the People’s Militia directorate noted that currently, the Kiev regime’s army was not ready for an offensive along the entire line of contact.

On January 9, the Donbass conflict started to escalate, with the Kiev forces opening fire along the entire line of contact.