UPDATED: 12:45 p.m.
(Reuters) – U.S. intelligence officials believe Russia has formed a plan to fabricate a pretext for an invasion of Ukraine, potentially by producing propaganda videos showing a staged attack, according to a senior Biden administration official.
Russia is formulating several options to give it an excuse for an invasion of Ukraine, the official said.
One is a fabricated video showing the graphic aftermath of an explosion, including equipment appearing to belong to Ukraine or allied nations, according to the official, who requested anonymity.
“The video will be released to underscore a threat to Russia’s security and to underpin military operations,” the official said. “This video, if released, could provide Putin the spark he needs to initiate and justify military operations against Ukraine.”
The U.S. official said Washington is publicizing the specific allegation in order to “dissuade” Russia from following through with such plans.
“We don’t know definitively that this is the route they (Russia) are going to take, but we know that this is an option under consideration,” U.S. Deputy National Security Advisor Jonathan Finer said in a media interview.
It “would involve actors playing mourners for people who are killed in an event that they (Russia) would have created themselves… (and) deployment of corpses to represent bodies purportedly killed,” Finer told MSNBC.
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 announced it would send nearly 3,000 extra troops to Poland and Romania.
Russia has denied plans of an invasion but has amassed thousands of troops on its border with Ukraine.
(Reporting by Steve Holland, Rami Ayyub and Trevor Hunnicutt in Washington and Kanishka Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Rosalba O’Brien)
_____________________________________________
ORIGINAL STORY:
BEIJING (Reuters) – China and Russia coordinated their positions on Ukraine during a meeting between both countries’ foreign ministers in Beijing on Thursday, according to a statement by the Chinese foreign ministry.
Ukraine says Russia has positioned 115,000 troops near its borders, stoking fears of a looming attack.
Moscow denies any such plan but international concern that Russia might be gearing up for war is running high. Russia has asked NATO to bar Ukraine from joining and to pull out of eastern Europe.
The United States and its allies have warned that an invasion would trigger tough sanctions and have rejected Russian’s demands about NATO.
China expressed “understanding and support” for Russia’s position on security regarding Russia’s relationship with the United States and NATO, the statement said, after Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov.
Both sides coordinated their positions on regional issues of common concern, such as Ukraine, Afghanistan and the situation on the Korean Peninsula, the statement said.
Two photos released by Chinese foreign ministry showed both men doing elbow bumps while masked. Before Lavrov, Beijing has not received foreign political guests for almost two years as it tries to keep the country’s capital free of COVID-19.
Lavrov is in Beijing with President Vladimir Putin, who will meet Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday before attending the opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics.
(Reporting by Yew Lun Tian; Editing by Peter Graff and Jonathan Oatis)
Comments