The Ukrainian Defense Ministry and the General Staff of the Ukrainian armed forces have labeled allegations having been circulated by the Donbas militants accusing Ukrainian government forces of plotting provocative acts in Donbas and planning to launch an offensive in the near future as "falsification."

"We state unambiguously that the Ukrainian armed forces will not allow provocation in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions," the Ukrainian armed forces' General Staff said in a statement posted on its official Facebook account on Friday.

However, in the event of the militants' attempts to start an offensive, Ukrainian armed forces "will give a worthy response to the enemy."

Previously Eduard Basurin of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) defense ministry had said on Thursday that the militants had learned about "plans of Ukraine's further actions" toward launching an offensive at the Debaltseve and Mariupol fronts. He said Ukraine was also planning "to stage a series of terror and sabotage attacks against its own troops and civilian infrastructure, and, after accusing the DPR and LPR [the self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic] of the attack, launch an offensive in the direction of Mariupol and Debaltseve."

The Ukrainian Defense Ministry and the General Staff contented in commenting on the militants' allegations that "such falsifications" are aimed at vindicating the militants' "planned actions to disrupt the Minsk agreements and the withdrawal of weapons smaller than 100mm in caliber."