U.S. officials claimed yesterday that Russia is plotting to make a “very graphic” fake video of a Ukrainian attack in order to justify a military invasion into Ukraine.
Officials painted a gruesome scene to stage the alleged plot. Russians would use corpses, footage of buildings that have already been blown up, fake Ukrainian military hardware, drones made in Turkey to attempt to implicate NATO, and actors to play the part of Russian mourners.
While painting this morbid picture, deputy national security adviser Jonathan Finer said in an interview that the U.S. does not definitively know that this is the route Russia will take, “but we know that it is an option under consideration.”
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said that the video would claim to show a Ukrainian attack on Russian territory, or on a Russian-speaking community within eastern Ukraine, and warned it would be “very graphic.”
The administration has said they hope that by spreading the word of this tactic, it will prevent the video from being made.
In a press briefing with State Department spokesman Ned Price, reporters asked for evidence of these claims. Associated Press reporter Matt Lee pressed Price for more information and said that the language being used suggests a Russian action in the present, not to have allegedly performed in the past.
Price said that the State Department had provided information weeks ago of intel that Russia had prepositioned a group of operatives to conduct a “false flag” operation inside of eastern Ukraine, and that this action had already happened. Lee said that there was no evidence of a propaganda film being made, and demanded the declassified information.
This marks the second time in weeks that the U.S. has pointed fingers at Russia for using ploys such as fake attacks or fake operations.
The claims are being made while the Ukraine crisis escalates, and tensions between the U.S. and Russia escalate with it. With 100,000 Russian troops poised at Russia’s border with Ukraine, a military invasion into Ukraine is feared.
Russia has denied the reports.
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