KYIV (Reuters) – Ukraine was notified about U.S. intelligence that Russia may stage a propaganda video as a pretext to launch a military offensive, but Kyiv is awaiting more details, Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told a briefing on Friday.
Kuleba compared the situation to 2014, when Russia annexed Crimea and backed separatists in eastern Ukraine. 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.
“In principle, what was made public does not surprise us,” Kuleba said. “Since 2014 we have seen a lot of insidious actions by the Russian Federation.”
(Reporting by Pavel Polityuk and Natalia Zinets; writing by Matthias Williams; editing by John Stonestreet)