The situation in the Russian and Ukrainian borders is getting intense as the Russians have planned to stage an attack to pretext for Ukraine’s invasion.
Jon Finer, Deputy National Security Adviser has said that the Russians have fabricated a pretext for an invasion of Ukraine and they used a fake video involving actors on certain roles.
He said in a statement, “We don’t know that this is the route they are going to take, but we know that this is an option under consideration that would involve actors, playing mourners for people who are killed in an event and the deployment of corpses of bodies purportedly killed in an incident.”
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The New York Times and The Washington Post have confirmed that they have received and reported this first.
They said, “The plot involves the release of a video, the official said, that would accuse Ukraine of conducting genocide against Russian speakers. It includes the staged aftermath of an explosion, as well as video of destroyed locations with images of corpses and faked Ukrainian military equipment, the official said.
State Department spokesperson Ned Price said at a briefing that the U.S. publicized information about the plan to expose “Russia’s destabilizing actions towards Ukraine and dissuade Russia from continuing this dangerous campaign and ultimately launching a military attack.”
It is the second release of intelligence by Western officials designed to thwart a Russian disinformation campaign. Last month, British officials released intelligence that the Kremlin was developing plans to install a pro-Russian leader in Ukraine.
Senators emerged Thursday from a briefing about the escalating situation along the Russia-Ukraine border from Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Secretary of State Antony Blinken. After the briefing, some senators said momentum has been building to pass a package of sanctions to deter Russia’s military from invading Ukraine.
Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., the chair of the Foreign Relations Committee, who is working on the sanctions package with ranking member James Risch, R-Idaho, said it has been gaining extensive bipartisan support.
The Ukraine briefing, Risch said, “only makes the case that this is more pressing, more timely, and that time, in this regard, if we want to be preventative, is of the essence.”
“Russia is in the process of producing movies, producing press releases, producing false proof that the Ukrainians are doing something to provoke them. It’s important that you get that out there and that the world understands that this is a false operation to try to justify them in an invasion,” he said. “Take my word for it. That is happening.”
Senators have yet to finalize the measure. Some who attended the briefing said the package includes “pre-invasion sanctions.” Several senators also indicated that they were closing in on an agreement.”
The Guarding also reported:
The Pentagon spokesman, John Kirby, said the video would have purported to show a Ukrainian attack on Russian territory or Russian-speaking people in eastern Ukraine and would be “very graphic”. He added that the US believed that the plan had the backing of the Kremlin.
“Our experience is that very little of this nature is not approved at the highest levels of the Russian government,” Kirby said.
US officials said the video would show Turkish-made Bayraktar drones taking part in the fabricated attack as a way of implicating Nato.
The claims are being made during a war of nerves between Russia and the US and its allies, in which diplomatic exchanges and intelligence briefings are playing out alongside a relentless Russian military buildup around Ukraine’s borders, and US and allied threats of devastating punitive economic measures if an attack goes ahead.
Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin has tried to blame the US for fomenting war in Ukraine.
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Meanwhile, Sen. Lindsey Graham has said:
“The briefing, I think, will accelerate the bipartisan sanctions package, It’s clear to me that if there is an invasion in Ukraine, it will be almost impossible to have a normal relationship with Russia.
“This is the first time since 1945 that we’ve had a real chance of a European war, and to the American people, if he gets away with this in Ukraine, you can expect China to move on Taiwan. We can expect the Iranians to break out and try to get a nuclear weapon, believing nobody will stop them,” Graham added.
Sources: NBC News, The New York Times, The Guardian