Russia and Russian-backed separatist forces have been staging a number of false flag operations in Eastern Ukraine throughout mid-to-late February 2022 to fabricate a pretext for an invasion of Ukraine by Russian forces. Russia has long conducted such false flag operations to portray itself or allied nations as victims, evade responsibility (for MH17 for example), sow confusion and create a pretext for war. In typical Russian fashion, these operations are conducted with an amateurish approach that appears inherent to most Russian intelligence operations. [1]

For Eastern Ukraine specifically, this has included a supposed infiltration by Ukrainian saboteurs into Russia. [2] Geolocation of the footage (taken from the helmet of one of the Ukrainian soldiers that supposedly participated in the infiltration) debunked the story within an hour after it turned out that the supposed incursion into Russian territory was carried out from separatist-held territory. [3] Rather than showing the bodies of the five Ukrainian soldiers that were supposedly killed in the raid, Russia instead showed a destroyed BTR-70M armoured personnel carrier (APC) that was painted in an ill-conceived attempt to make it look like a Ukrainian vehicle. [4] Ironically, Ukraine doesn't even operate the BTR-70M, further showing the attention (or lack thereof) that goes into these false flag operations.

Other false flag operations have included car bombings and even evacuations which's timestamp indicated they were filmed days before they were announced by Russian and separatist authorities. [5] The common trend with all of these operations is that they further propel Russia on the path toward becoming a full-fledged pariah state. The painting of own vehicles to make them look like Ukrainian ones before having them appear in a badly-staged provocation and later blowing them up all the while leaving ample evidence everything is a farce truly defines false flag shenanigans.

Armoured Fighting Vehicles (3, of which destroyed: 3)

• 2 BMP-2 IFV: (1, destroyed) (2, destroyed)
• 1 BTR-70M APC: (1, destroyed)
  

 

Vehicles (2, of which destroyed: 2)

• 2 UAZ-469: (1, destroyed) (2, destroyed)