Putin's accusation against Kyiv on 31 March 2021
A look back at a day when Moscow blamed Ukraine for armed confrontation in Donbas, days after a deadly attack on Ukrainian troops.
What did it mean when the Russian president accused Kyiv of provoking armed confrontation on 31 March 2021? The charge, made by Vladimir Putin, was aimed at Ukraine's conduct toward pro-Russian separatists in the war-torn east of the country.
Putin also said Ukraine had failed to comply with the July 2020 ceasefire. The conflict, which began in 2014, had by then killed more than 14,000 people.
The context five days earlier
The accusation came shortly after a deadly incident on the front line. On 26 March 2021, four Ukrainian troops were killed and two wounded when separatists fired a rocket at a military position in Donetsk Oblast. As reported at the time, it was the worst loss of life for Ukrainian forces in a single attack since 2019.
Two competing accounts
The two sets of reports pointed in opposite directions. Moscow's president placed responsibility for the confrontation, and for the breakdown of the July 2020 ceasefire, on Kyiv. The reported events of 26 March showed Ukrainian soldiers as the victims of a separatist strike.
Taken together, the two items show how contested the ceasefire had become by the end of March 2021: its terms were still invoked by the Russian side, even as fatal fire continued along the line of contact.
