Russian state TV channels warn Ukraine attack is imminent
Putin-backed TV channels warn a NATO-backed Ukrainian attack is imminent – hours after Kremlin plan to release false flag ‘genocide’ video with fake bodies was exposed by the US
- Three of Russia’s largest state TV channels have warned Ukrainian attack on border area is ‘imminent’
- Thursday evening bulletins warned of 120,000 Ukrainian troops massed in the region, increased artillery attacks and hospitals being set up in what is feared to be a propaganda effort to justify a Russian attack
- Separately, the US said it uncovered a Russian plot to stage a ‘false flag’ drone attack as a pre-text to invade
- Ukraine also accused Belarus of faking a drone operation, after Minsk claimed to have shot down a spy craft
- Huge war games are continuing in Belarus, which observers fear could be used to disguise an invasion force
Russian state TV is claiming that Ukraine is about to launch a NATO-backed attack on pro-Russian separatists in the east of the country, in what is feared to be a Kremlin propaganda effort to justify an invasion.
Three of Russia’s largest state-owned media channels – Channel 1, Rossiya 1 and NTV – ran Thursday evening bulletins that spoke of ‘hospitals and artillery’ being deployed near rebel-held areas in the Donbass region, 120,000 Ukrainian troops armed with NATO weapons near the frontline, and an increase in shelling.
Separately, US intelligence sources alleged that Russia is about to stage a ‘false flag’ operation involving faked drone attacks on the Donbass region or Russian territory – including footage of destroyed locations strewn with corpses and fake mourners – as a pre-text for invading in order to prevent a ‘genocide’.
Ukraine has already accused Belarus of trying to stage a so-called ‘false flag’ operation, by claiming to have shot down one of Kiev’s spy drones near the border with Russia on Thursday. Belarusian state media circulated images of what it said was a downed Ukrainian drone, but Ukraine’s foreign ministry ‘categorically denied’ it was genuine.
‘The intensity with which Russian-state controlled media is spreading a false story about a fake UA drone allegedly ‘violating Belarusian airspace’ is a crystal clear example drawn straight from the pages of Russia’s disinformation playbook. Do not be misled,’ foreign ministry spokesman Oleg Nikolenko tweeted.
Contrary to Russian state media’s claims, satellite images reveal it is Putin who has massed around 130,000 troops backed by tanks and artillery on Ukraine’s borders – and is in the process of staging elaborate war games in Belarus that observers fear could be used as cover to stage an invasion.
Belarusian tanks take part in live-fire drills on a training ground near Brest – part of huge joint war games with Russia which observers fear could be used to disguise an invasion
Rocket artillery open fire during huge military drills taking place in Brest, Belarus, which began on Wednesday and are set to continue for at least another week
A rocket explodes on a training ground in western Belarus, amid joint ‘combat readiness’ drills being carried out with Russia
Mobile artillery units open fire during huge war games that are currently taking place in Belarus, amid tensions with Ukraine
A Russian tank fires its main cannon during joint war games currently taking place in Belarus, near the border with Ukraine
President Xi hosts Vladimir Putin in Beijing for start of the Winter Olympics
China’s President Xi Jinping today met with Russian leader Vladimir Putin for the first time in nearly two years, with the pair drawing closer as tensions grow with the West.
Xi has not left China since January 2020, when the country was grappling with its initial Covid-19 outbreak and locked down the central city of Wuhan where the virus was first detected.
He is now readying to meet more than 20 leaders as Beijing kicks off a Winter Olympics it hopes will be a soft-power triumph and shift focus away from a build-up blighted by a diplomatic boycott and Covid fears.
Putin’s jet touched down in the Chinese capital earlier today, state broadcaster CCTV reported, on the day of the Beijing Winter Olympics opening ceremony.
The two leaders are set to share talks before their nations release a joint statement reflecting their ‘common views’ on security and other issues, a top Kremlin adviser said at a Wednesday press briefing.
The two strongmen will then attend the Olympic opening ceremony in the evening.
Putin remains the highest-profile guest at the event following the decision by the US, UK and others not to send officials in protest over China’s human rights abuses and its treatment of Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities.
The Putin-Xi talks are expected to focus on coordinating their countries’ foreign policies, with Mr Putin writing in an article published on Thursday by the Chinese news agency Xinhua that Moscow and Beijing play an ‘important stabilising role’ in global affairs and help make international affairs ‘more equitable and inclusive’.
The Russian president has criticised ‘attempts by some countries to politicise sports to the benefit of their ambitions’, an apparent reference to a US-led diplomatic boycott, which does not affect the participation of athletes in the Games.
Russia, which seized Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and backs separatists in the east of the country, is demanding security guarantees including a promise NATO will never admit Kiev as it has amassed some 100,000 troops near the Ukrainian border.
The United States has said there is little chance of Ukraine joining NATO soon but that the country should decide its own future as the powers clash over their spheres of influence in post-Cold War Europe.
U.S. intelligence believes Russia could use a fabricated video showing the graphic aftermath of an explosion, including equipment appearing to belong to Ukraine or allied nations, to justify an incursion.
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,’ U.S. Deputy National Security Advisor Jonathan Finer told MSNBC.
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 standoff, 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.
Paratroopers with the U.S. Army boarded aircraft on Thursday to leave for Eastern Europe ‘in support of assuring our NATO allies and our partners in deterring Russia,’ U.S. Army spokesman Matthew Visser said.
The soldiers were departing from Fort Bragg in North Carolina. Around 1,700 service members, mainly from the 82nd Airborne Division, were being deployed to Poland, while 300 others will move to Germany, he said.
Washington and NATO have expresses a readiness to discuss arms control and confidence-building measures. Russian President Vladimir Putin said earlier in the week that Moscow was still interested in dialogue.
In Brussels, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said there had been a significant movement of Russian military forces into Ukraine’s northern neighbor Belarus in recent days.
The Russia-Belarus joint military drills, running until Feb. 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.
Support for Russia came from China.
Their two foreign ministers ‘coordinated their positions’ during a meeting in Beijing on Thursday, the Chinese foreign ministry said.
China expressed understanding and support for Russia’s position on security regarding Russia’s relationship with the United States and NATO, it said.
Ukrainian Special Forces showing off their IPI Malyuk assault rifles, amid tensions with Russia
Putin was set to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday before attending the opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics.
The U.S. State Department warned Russia that a closer relationship between Moscow and Beijing would not make up for the consequences of an invasion and only make the Russian economy ‘more brittle.’
Elsewhere, world leaders continued their efforts to resolve the crisis.
In Kiev, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan held talks with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskiy and offered to host a meeting between Putin and Zelenskiy.
In a move likely to grate with Moscow, Zelenskiy used the meeting to trumpet a deal enabling Ukrainian factories to produce Turkish drones that have already been deployed in Ukraine’s war against Russia-backed rebels in its eastern Donbass region.
In Paris, French President Emmanuel Macron said he and Polish President Andrzej Duda had discussed the possibility of a three-way meeting along with Germany’s Olaf Scholz in coming days on the situation in Ukraine.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called for Russia to return to a path of ‘peace and dialogue’ or face sanctions as the EU worked on a joint response to a letter many of its members received from Russia seeking security guarantees.
Russia has also denied any intention of invading Ukraine, despite NATO warning of the biggest deployment of Moscow’s forces in Belarus since Soviet times.
‘Over the last days, we have seen a significant movement of Russian military forces into Belarus. This is the biggest Russian deployment there since the Cold War,’ said Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg.
However, Ukraine also played down the threat of a Russian invasion.
Defence minister Oleksii Reznikov said ‘the threat exists, the risks exist, but they have existed since 2014, ever since Russia has become an aggressor.’
Currently, ‘there are no grounds for panic, fear, flight or the packing of bags’, he said.
MT-LB armoured personnel carriers take part in war games in Brest, Belarus, on Thursday as part of joint drills with Russia
Tanks roll across a military firing range and open fire with their cannons during joint training exercises in Belarus
Smoke from an explosion rises into the air as Belarusian and Russian militaries take part in joint training exercises in Belarus
An explosion lights up a firing range in Brest, Belarus, during joint training exercises involving Moscow and Minsk’s forces
And the head of the armed forces in Ukraine Valery Zaluzhny denied any plans for offensives by his country in the Donbas or Crimea.
‘No orders or discussions about a military operation in Crimea and Donbass have been held,’ he said.
UK foreign secretary Liz Truss said of the US false flag stunt claims: ‘This is clear and shocking evidence of Russia’s unprovoked aggression and underhand activity to destabilise Ukraine.
‘This bellicose intent towards a sovereign, democratic country is completely unacceptable and we condemn it in the strongest possible terms.’
Belarus has protested to Ukraine after an alleged spy drone was downed on its territory.
New footage shows the drone for the first time.
Minsk claimed the unmanned reconnaissance flyer was on an illegal mission to monitor massing Russian troops near Brest.
‘An analysis of data from the drone systems shows that it was launched from Ukrainian territory to accomplish an illegal reconnaissance mission over the Brestsky range [one of the ranges to host the joint Russian-Belarusian exercise],’ said the Belarus foreign ministry.
Ukraine’s foreign ministry spokesman Oleh Nikolenko denied launching the spy drone, claiming the story was ‘mythical’.
It was ‘another provocation by the authorities in Belarus…
‘We urge Minsk not to play along with Russia’s destabilising actions.
‘Peace on the border between Belarus and Ukraine is in the interest of the entire region.’
A Russian machine-gunner opens fire during war games to test the ‘combat readiness’ of Russian and Belarusian troops
Ukrainian armed forces fire rocket launchers as they take part in training drills amid fears that Russia could be about to invade
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