> well technically the ukranians were doing the shelling first, starting on february 17th, killing ethnic russians in donbas.

Many sources argued both in advance and at the time that these were false-flag attacks designed to create a pretext for the invasion. (Eg, https://www.voanews.com/a/shelling-mortar-fire-intensify-in-...)

So the accusation of propaganda can go either way.