One popular Russian propaganda narrative was that after 2014 "Ukraine for 8 years bombed Donetsk". Here's one such case, recorded in 2015 by a local resident of Donetsk who films how "Donetsk People's Republic" army is firing mortars from Smolyanka district of Donetsk into the town center, which was of course later blamed on Ukraine. These false flag operations were also described in detail by Igor Salikov, a "Wagner group" commander who defected to Netherlands in 2023.