Boris Johnson accuses Russia of trying to ‘discredit’ Ukraine by bombing a school

British Prime Minister, Boris Johnsonaccused on Thursday Russia of wanting to “discredit” Kiev to justify an invasion, after a nursery school was hit by a shell in eastern Ukraine, the scene of a conflict with pro-Russian separatists.

“A nursery school was bombed in… an operation… designed to discredit Ukrainians, designed as a pretext, a false provocation to justify Russian action,” Johnson said during a visit to a military base. In England.

Earlier, British Foreign Minister Liz Truss, traveling to Kiev on Thursday, had already accused Russia of “manufacturing pretexts for an invasion of Ukraine.”

The chancellor also said she was “very concerned about the information today (Thursday) that shows a reinforcement of the Russian aggression: more than 7,000 additional troops on the border and an attack on a nursery school.”

In a statement posted on Facebook, the Ukrainian military accused separatist fighters of attacking the town of Stanitsa Luganska, including a kindergarten, “with particular cynicism.”

For their part, the authorities of the separatist region of Lugansk, quoted by the Russian news agency Interfax, announced that “the situation on the front has deteriorated in the last 24 hours.”

Russia, which has concentrated more than 100,000 soldiers on the country’s borders, expressed its “deep concern.” Moscow has been claiming since Tuesday that it is partially withdrawing its troops from the Ukrainian border, but Western countries have denied these claims in unison.