Ukraine accused Russian-backed rebels Thursday of shelling a border village as both sides lobbed charges that the other was violating a cease-fire in eastern Ukraine, a flashpoint between Kiev and Moscow since Russia annexed Crimea in 2014.

Kiev called the shelling of Stanytsia Luhanska a “provocation” and tied it to Russia massing more than 150,000 troops along the Ukrainian border in recent months.

Russian state-backed media claimed Ukrainian forces fired shells into territory held by Kremlin-backed separatists in violation of a 2015 cease-fire.

The Ukrainian Joint Forces Operation denied the accusations and asserted that the rebels attacked the village, with at least two shells damaging a kindergarten building.

“Ukrainian Stanytsia Luhanska village was shelled with heavy weapons from the occupied territory of the Donbas. Civilian infrastructure damaged,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said in a Twitter post. 

“We call on all partners to swiftly condemn this severe violation of Minsk agreements by Russia amid an already tense security situation,” he said. 

“With particular cynicism, the Russian occupation troops shelled the village of Stanytsa Lugansk in the Luhansk region,” the Ukrainian military said. “As a result of the use of heavy artillery weapons by terrorists, shells hit the kindergarten building. According to preliminary data, two civilians received shell shock.”

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) recorded multiple shelling incidents in eastern Ukraine early Thursday. A top Ukrainian government official told Reuters that the shelling at the cease-fire line surpasses the level of breaches previously reported during the long-running conflict. 

“It is not typical. It looks a lot like a provocation,” the source said.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Thursday that Russia was “seriously concerned” about the reports of escalation.

Russia has denied it is planning to invade Ukraine and has said it has withdrawn thousands of troops from the border, even posting video of armored vehicles crossing a bridge away from Crimea.

But the United States and its allies have disputed that contention and accused Russia of doing the opposite by adding as many as 7,000 troops along the frontier over the past few days.

At a meeting of NATO defense ministers in Brussels, UK Defense Secretary Ben Wallace warned that the latest shelling could be used by Russia as a pretext for an attack “if [Russian President Vladimir] Putin has decided he’s going to invade.”

“It’s part of the playbook,” said Wallace, who warned of “activity on the ground in cyber, in forward or specialist forces, seeking to either do false flags or to create pretext. You’re definitely going to start seeing, we already are seeing, the raising of the rhetoric around alleged breaches.”

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said the alliance is “concerned that Russia is trying to stage a pretext for an armed attack against Ukraine.”

“We know that there are many Russian intelligence officers operating in Ukraine. They are present in Donbas and we have seen attempts to stage a pretext — false flag operations — to provide an excuse for invading Ukraine,” he added.

The 2015 cease-fire, brokered by France and Germany and known as the Minsk Agreement, was signed by representatives of Russia, Ukraine, the OSCE and the leaders of the separatist-held regions of Donetsk and Luhansk.  

The OSCE has reported numerous incidents violating the agreement over the years, but most of them involved the test-firing of weapons, although significant shelling occurs several times a month. 

The death toll from the fighting in Donbas has topped 15,000 and Putin claimed earlier this week that “genocide” of Russian sympathizers is occurring in the region.

The self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic accused Ukrainian forces of firing mortars, grenade launchers and a machine gun on Thursday.

“Armed forces of Ukraine have crudely violated the ceasefire regime, using heavy weapons, which, according to the Minsk agreements, should be withdrawn,” the rebels said in a statement.

Further complicating the matter, Russian lawmakers on Wednesday urged Putin to recognize Luhansk and Donetsk as independent, prompting warnings from Secretary of State Antony Blinken and the European Union.

“Enactment of this resolution would further undermine Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, constitute a gross violation of international law, call into further question Russia’s stated commitment to continue to engage in diplomacy to achieve a peaceful resolution of this crisis,” Blinken said in a statement.

He also said it would “necessitate a swift and firm response from the United States in full coordination with our Allies and partners.”

Blinken was scheduled to address the United Nations Security Council Thursday morning en route to Munich for a weekend security conference.

With Post wires