Reports of Russia-backed rebels shelling a village preschool in eastern Ukraine haven’t been confirmed but come right out of Moscow’s playbook for instigating conflict, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Thursday.
“We’re still gathering the details, but we’ve said for some time that the Russians might do something like this in order to justify military conflict,” Mr. Austin said during a press conference at NATO headquarters in Belgium.
“We’ll be watching this very closely,” he added.
Ukrainian military officials said there were no injuries when the building in the Luhansk region was reportedly struck.
Mr. Austin was in Brussels for a meeting of NATO defense ministers. He disputed reports that Moscow has begun withdrawing some of the more than 150,000 troops now arrayed along its border with Ukraine.
“We’ve seen some of these troops inching closer to the border. We’ve seen them stock up on their blood supplies,” Mr. Austin told reporters. “I know first-hand that you don’t do these sorts of things for no reason. And you certainly don’t do them if you’re getting ready to pack up and go home.”