Ukraine accused of attempting to breach border with Russia

MOSCOW (RUSSIA) — The Russian military claims it has stopped a “diversionary reconnaissance” party from crossing the Ukrainian border.

The incident, which apparently occurred at 03:00 GMT in Russia’s southwestern Rostov area, claimed the lives of five personnel, according to the Russian defence ministry.

The accusation was denied by Kyiv as “false news.”

The exchange took place only hours after the Kremlin shattered expectations of high-level diplomacy to resolve the Ukraine conflict, a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart Joe Biden seemed to agree – in principle – to talks.

Vladimir Putin asked to recognise the independence of rebel republics

The leaders of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic and the Luhansk People’s Republic in eastern Ukraine have requested Putin to recognise them as independent states.

If Russia takes that move, it may open the door for Moscow to publicly send military soldiers into both areas, claiming that it is acting as an ally to protect them from Ukraine.

Putin’s invasion plan for Ukraine has ‘begun,’ as per UK PM’s spokesman

According to Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s spokesperson, the UK government has received intelligence that implies Putin is planning an invasion of Ukraine.

The spokesperson told reporters that the intelligence they are seeing shows that Russia is planning an invasion and that President Putin’s plan is already underway. “We’re seeing elements of the Russian playbook that we’d expect to see in certain scenarios start to play out in real-time.”