When were they ever NOT going to try to blame Ukraine for this? I'd been expecting Putin to have some kind of atrocity staged that he could blame on Ukraine, much the way he staged apartment bombings before re-starting the Chechen War - just so he could justify general mobilization.

These accusations are for his domestic audience, not us. It doesn't matter how ridiculous they seem to us. He cares about being able to mobilize without having an uprising on his hands.