Analysis: Just as Russian armour and helicopters are edging up the border, Russian messaging is also advancing to the brink

The omens of impending war we were warned about now seem to be lining up like the horsemen of the apocalypse.

The field hospitals have been set near the border, blood banks have reportedly been brought in. On the information war front, a dossier of alleged Ukraine war crimes circulated at the UN security council, and a video popped up purporting to show an attempted Ukrainian attack on chlorine tanks in the Donbas.

A resident of a city in eastern Ukraine where a kindergarten was hit by shelling from Russian-backed separatists has said that he thought the artillery barrage meant that war had started. 

'We were getting ready to go to work, we got up and just like back in 2014 and 2015 there was a huge noise, it was not far away,' Dmytro, a resident of Stanytsia Luhanska, said.

'We were all anxious and panicked because we knew, we expected some provocations exactly at this time so we thought that the war has indeed started,' he added.

The incidents come at a time of global concern over the prospect of a wider war, with more than 100,000 Russian troops near the Ukrainian frontier. Moscow denies it is planning an invasion and has said this week it is pulling back some troops, though western countries say they are not convinced it is

Shelling by Russian-backed separatists raises tensions in east Ukraine

Russia and Ukraine crisis latest news: live updates as US warns of Russian invasion