Washington accuses Moscow of preparing a “pretext” operation to invade Ukraine

Washington accuses Moscow of preparing a pretext operation to invade

The tension keeps mounting. The talks that took place this week did not lead to a detente between the United States and Russia on the highly sensitive file of Ukraine. Quite the contrary, since the United States now accuses Russia of having positioned secret agents in Ukrainian territory to carry out acts of sabotage.

These are very serious and very specific accusations that are being made by Washington, explains Daniel Vallot, from the RFI international service.

According to the White House spokeswoman, Russia plans to create “ from scratch a pretext for an invasion of Ukraine, should the diplomatic solution fail.

To do this, details Jen Psaki, “ agents trained in urban guerrilla warfare and the use of explosives ” have been ” prepositioned to conduct operations in Ukraine.

These sabotage activities would be carried out, according to information advanced by the White House, a few weeks before the outbreak of a military invasion.

Accusations ” free “, and devoid of any foundation, immediately retorted Russia.


We have information indicating that Russia has already pre-positioned a group of operatives to conduct false flag operations in eastern Ukraine. These agents are trained in urban warfare and the use of explosives to carry out acts of sabotage against pro-Russian forces. Our information also indicates that influential Russian actors are already beginning to invent Ukrainian provocations in state media and social networks to justify Russian intervention and divisions in Ukraine. For example, Russian officials and influential people highlight stories about the deterioration of human rights in Ukraine and the growing militancy of Ukrainian leaders. These media stories also accuse the West of escalating tension, pointing to humanitarian problems in Ukraine – which Russian intervention could solve. They promote Russian patriotism to encourage Russian public support for military action. In December, Russian-language content on social media highlighting these stories increased to almost 3,500 posts per day. It is three times more than in November

Jen Psaki, White House spokeswoman


But as if to buttress the plausibility of this scenario, Ukraine asserted on Friday have suffered a large-scale cyberattack – cyberattack that may have been carried out by Russian intelligence services, according to the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry.

The tension between the Russian Federation and the Western countries has therefore absolutely not subsided, despite the intensive discussions conducted this week.

►Read again: Large-scale cyberattack in Ukraine, all eyes on Russia

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