US accuses Russia of plotting ‘graphic’ video as pretext for Ukraine attack

The Pentagon said it had evidence of a plan by Moscow to film a fake Ukrainian attack on Russians to justify a real assault on its pro-West neighbour. “We do have information that the Russians are likely to want to fabricate a pretext for an invasion,” Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby said on Thursday. He told reporters that Washington believed the Russian government plans to stage an attack by the Ukraine military or intelligence forces “against Russian sovereign territory, or against Russian speaking people”. The latter could refer to the sizeable Russian-speaking population inside Ukraine. “As part of this fake attack, we believe that Russia would produce a very graphic propaganda video, which would include corpses and actors that would be depicting mourners and images of destroyed locations,” he said. That could allow Moscow, which has amassed more than 100,000 troops and heavy offensive arms on Ukraine’s border, with an excuse for invading. Neither Kirby nor State Department Spokesperson Ned Price, who also commented on the alleged plan, offered evidence to back the claim. Kirby said part of the plan would be to make the Ukrainian military equipment used in it appear to be supplied by the West, he said, further justifying Russian reprisals against Ukraine. US deploys 3,000 troops to support Nato. Russia calls move ‘destructive’ “We’ve seen these kinds of activity by the Russians in the past and we believe it’s important when we see it like this that we can call it out,” Kirby said. “I would just say that our experience is that very little of this nature is not approved at the highest levels of the Russian government,” Kirby said about the purported plan. Price said the alleged plan is “one of a number of options that the Russian government is developing as a fake pretext to initiate and potentially justify military aggression against Ukraine.” Pressed on whether there was evidence of such a plan, Price said it came from US intelligence, but offered no more details. British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss called the US claim of Moscow’s false flag operations “clear and shocking evidence of Russia’s unprovoked aggression and underhand activity to destabilise Ukraine”. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed the reports, according to the TASS news agency, saying similar things had been said previously but amounted to nothing. Moscow has denied accusations in the past that it is trying to manufacture a conflict and says it is not planning an invasion but that it could take unspecified military action if its security demands are not met. The Kremlin accused Washington on Thursday of ignoring its calls to ease the stand-off, a day after the United States announced it would send nearly 3,000 extra troops to Poland and Romania. “It’s obvious that these are not steps aimed at de-escalating tensions, but on the contrary they are actions that lead to increasing tension,” Peskov said on a conference call on Thursday. “We constantly call on our American counterparts to stop aggravating tensions on the European continent. Unfortunately, the Americans continue to do so,” he said. Asked later Thursday if the United States might be adding fuel to the fire by sending troops and aid, Kirby said Washington was trying to reassure Nato allies. We will resist: Putin flags united China-Russia front against sanctions “One, we continue to flow security assistance to Ukraine, so that they can better defend themselves against this threat,” Kirby said during an interview on Fox News. “And, number two, and this is really important: to make sure we are reassuring our allies, allies to whom we have significant security commitments.” In Brussels, Nato Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said there had been a significant movement of Russian military forces into Ukraine’s northern neighbour Belarus in recent days. The Russia-Belarus joint military drills, running until February 20, have provided Moscow with cover to further increase forces near Ukraine. “This is the biggest Russian deployment there since the Cold War,” said Stoltenberg, adding the expected deployment includes 30,000 combat troops, Spetsnaz special operations forces, SU-35 fighter jets, S-400 air defence systems and nuclear-capable Iskander missiles. The Kremlin has described the Allied Resolve exercises as a rehearsal for repelling external aggression and says its forces will withdraw after the drills. Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu arrived in Belarus on Thursday to inspect the troops. The Belarusian defence minister released images from the exercises showing troops parachuting to the ground, fighter jets in the sky, soldiers dismounting from a helicopter holding weapons, and tanks firing and manoeuvring. Belarus shares its western border with Nato members Poland, Lithuania and Latvia, while Ukraine lies to its south. Agence France-Presse, Reuters and Associated Press