Boris Johnson has said a reported attack on a kindergarten in Ukraine was a “false flag operation designed to discredit the Ukrainians.”
The Prime Minister added: “We fear very much that that is a thing we will see more of over the next few days”.
Johnson spoke after an exchange of artillery fire between Russian -backed separatists and Ukrainian government troops in east Ukraine, with claims that rebel shells hit a nursery school.
Speaking about the latest developments in Ukraine on a visit to RAF Waddington in Lincolnshire, the Prime Minister said: “I wish I could give everybody better news about this, but I have to tell you that the picture is continuing to be very grim."
He said: “Today, as I’m sure you’ve already picked up, a kindergarten was shelled in what we are taking to be – well, we know – was a false flag operation designed to discredit the Ukrainians, designed to create a pretext, a spurious provocation for Russian action.
“We fear very much that that is the kind of thing we will see more of over the next few days.
“What we are doing is making that we do everything to strengthen the package of sanctions that will follow immediately should there be a Russian invasion.”
Foreign Secretary Liz Truss has arrived in Ukraine, where she is expected to deliver a speech later.
Truss said she was “very concerned” about the situation and accused the Kremlin of trying to create a pretext for an invasion.
Separatist authorities in the Luhansk region claimed there had been an increase in Ukrainian shelling along the tense line of contact, describing it as a “large-scale provocation”.
Truss warned that Russian President Vladimir Putin could mount a “false flag” operation to justify an invasion.
She said: “Reports of alleged abnormal military activity by Ukraine in Donbas are a blatant attempt by the Russian government to fabricate pretexts for invasion."
“This is straight out of the Kremlin playbook.”
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