I mean, that's more or less how the Korean War started. the the fascist government of the South was in disarray from protests and strikes, so they kept doing mass killings on civilians and specifically targeting workers groups and leftists basically baiting the north to come across the imaginary line a US serviceman just invented on a map and protect the workers.

the same was done by US backed religious fanatics and opium warlords in Afghanistan burning down schools and murdering women politicians (all communists) in Afghanistan right along the Soviet border to draw them in.

it's a move from the imperial playbook to use corrupt little proxies to provoke the defensive, encircled worker states by doing absolutely heinous shit to civilians along their border and play upon their commitment to human rights.

then blast the move as evidence of their unpredictable, aggressive militarism and play up the need to prop up the proxy as a defensive ally.