In a podcast with Lex Friedman, Oliver Stone mentions (at around 57:20 here) that the OSCE logged a buildup of 110,000 Ukranian troops on the border with Donbass prior to Russia sending it's troops to the region.
Is this accurate information?
I saw that there was a similar question here but don't think it went into any discussions on OSCE logs in particular.
First it looks like a dupe of Is there any proof that Ukraine was planning military deployment into the self-proclaimed republics in Donbass prior to 24 February 2022?
It might be worthwhile to point out that Donbas was, on both sides, heavily militarized. 130k Ukrainian troops? Why would there not be any Ukrainian troops there?
This OSCE meeting did not seem to blame Ukraine much:
A meeting of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) hoped to defuse the mounting crisis on Ukraine's border, where there is a large Russian military presence, but ended with organizers saying no breakthrough had been made.
And this OSCE log of Feb 21 does not talk of an unusual buildup in the areas it monitored in the separation zone.
Summary
In Donetsk region, between the evenings of 18 and 20 February, the SMM recorded 2,158
ceasefire violations, including 1,100 explosions. In the previous reporting period, it recorded
591 ceasefire violations in the region.
In Luhansk region, between the evenings of 18 and 20 February, the Mission recorded 1,073
ceasefire violations, including 926 explosions. In the previous reporting period, it recorded
975 ceasefire violations in the region.
The Mission followed up on reports of damage to a civilian property and a factory building
in non-government-controlled Mykolaivka, Luhansk region.
Small-arms fire was assessed as directed at an SMM mini-unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)
in Staromykhailivka, Donetsk region and the Mission heard explosions close to its location
in Mykolaivka, and Horlivka, Donetsk region*.
The Mission continued monitoring the disengagement areas near Stanytsia Luhanska, Zolote
and Petrivske. It recorded ceasefire violations (including explosions) inside the
disengagement area near Zolote and close to the disengagement areas near Stanytsia
Luhanska and Petrivske.
The SMM observed fresh craters in government-controlled Zolote, Luhansk region.
The Mission monitored the operation of critical civilian infrastructure.
The SMM continued to follow up on the situation of civilians, including at four entry-exit
checkpoints and three corresponding checkpoints of the armed formations in Donetsk and
Luhansk regions.
The Mission monitored a crossing point on the border with Poland.
The SMM monitored the security situation in east and south-east Kherson region.
The OSCE daily reports are accessible by search, the one above is the last one before the invasion.
This Feb 1st, 2022 report also lacks content to backup Stone. Those reports tend to talk about the observed activities in the demilitarized zones and refer to shelling and small scale incidents. They don't talk about massive buildups:
Finally, is the same Oliver Stone, in the same interview, that warned of a US false flag nuke attack?
He continued, “For example, it’d be very, not simple, but it would be possible to explode a nuclear device in Donbas and kill thousands of people. And we would not know right away who did it, but of course the blame would go right to Russia. Even if it didn’t make sense, if there was no motivation for it, it would just be blamed on Russia.”
“The United States might well be the one who does that false flag operation. It would not be beyond them. They would, it would be a very dramatic, uh, solution to seal this war off as a major victory for the United States,” Stone added.
Very credible, that. Note that I myself tend to see talks about Russia's potential for nuclear attack as disinformation/spin until proven otherwise. Disinformation when it's claimed that Russia is that nasty, disinformation when the risk is spun up to justify cut and running from supporting Ukraine.
p.s. txs for linking to the exact time in the YouTube link.
