(Reuters) – U.S. intelligence businesses consider Russia has shaped a plan to fabricate a pretext for an invasion of Ukraine, probably by producing propaganda movies displaying a staged assault, the United States stated on Thursday.
The United States accused Russia of formulating a number of choices to give it an excuse for an invasion of Ukraine amid rising tensions with Western nations.
One of the choices is a fabricated video displaying the graphic aftermath of an explosion concentrating on Russian individuals, that includes corpses, mourners and tools showing to belong to Ukraine or allied nations, State Department spokesman Ned Price and a Biden administration official stated.
“The video can be launched to underscore a risk to Russia’s safety and to underpin navy operations,” the official stated. “This video, if launched, might present (Russian President Vladimir) Putin the spark he wants to provoke and justify navy operations towards Ukraine.”
TASS information company cited Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov responding to studies that Russia will stage fabricated assaults by Ukraine as saying: “This shouldn’t be the primary report. Something related was additionally stated earlier. But nothing has come out.”
U.S. officers stated they publicized their most particular allegation but of doable Russian propaganda so as to “dissuade” Moscow from following via with such plans.
They stated it was not clear if Russia has determined to take such a step or if they’ve determined whether or not to invade Ukraine.
“The manufacturing of this propaganda video is one in all plenty of choices that the Russian authorities is growing as a faux pretext to provoke and probably justify navy aggression towards Ukraine,” Price informed reporters.
“We do not know if Russia will essentially use this or another choice within the coming days.”
Price declined to present extra specifics or proof of the video.
U.S. Deputy National Security Advisor Jonathan Finer in a media interview stated the United States doesn’t definitively know if that is the route Russia will take.
British overseas minister Liz Truss stated on Twitter that the U.S. intelligence was “clear and surprising proof of Russia’s unprovoked aggression and underhand exercise to destabilise Ukraine.”
Russia has accused the United States of ramping up tensions and ignoring Moscow’s calls to ease a standoff over Ukraine, a day after Washington introduced it could ship practically 3,000 additional troops to Poland and Romania.
Russia has denied plans of an invasion however has amassed 1000’s of troops on its border with Ukraine.
(Reporting by Steve Holland, Rami Ayyub, Trevor Hunnicutt, Simon Lewis and Daphne Psaledakis in Washington and Kanishka Singh in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by Anastasia Teterevleva in Moscow; Editing by Rosalba O’Brien)
