U.S. embassy in Ukraine says Russia is "propagating violence" in territory it controls

The U.S. embassy in Ukraine said Saturday that Russia is "propagating violence in territory they control and attempting to blame Ukraine."

Driving the news: "The world is united in its condemnation of Russia’s cynical and transparent provocations. We all know who the aggressor is - Russia," the embassy wrote in a tweet on Saturday.

State of play: U.S. officials have warned that Russia is preparing to manufacture a pretext for an invasion and that it could take the form of a fabricated escalation in territory controlled by separatists, Axios' Zachary Basu reports.

• There were more than 1,500 ceasefire violations in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions on Friday, which is a massive uptick, according to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe's monitoring mission in Ukraine.
• The foreign ministers of Group of Seven countries on Saturday warned that the uptick in ceasefire violations "could be used as a pretext for possible military escalation."
• "Russia must use its influence over the self-proclaimed republics to exercise restraint and de-escalate," the G7 leaders said in a joint statement.

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Editor's note: This story has been updated with the number of ceasefire violations as reported by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and the joint statement from G7 leaders.