US says Russia planned to use a 'graphic' fake video with corpses and actors to justify an invasion of Ukraine
- The US on Thursday said Russia planned to stage a "graphic" fake video to justify invading Ukraine.
- US officials described such a video as one of several strategies Russia might use.
The US on Thursday said it had intelligence that Russia was considering using a "graphic" fake video involving corpses and actors to drum up support for an invasion of Ukraine.
"We believe that Russia would produce a very graphic propaganda video, which would include corpses and actors that would be depicting mourners and images of destroyed locations as well as military equipment at the hands of Ukraine or the West," the Pentagon spokesman Jon Kirby told reporters.
"Our experience is that very little of this nature is not approved at the highest levels of the Russian government," Kirby added.
US officials say such a video would show a fabricated attack by Ukrainian forces in eastern Ukraine, where Ukrainian forces have been fighting a yearslong war against Kremlin-backed separatists, and possibly in Russia as well, The Washington Post first reported.
The White House's deputy national security advisor, Jon Finer, on Thursday told MSNBC the alleged plot "shows the level of cynicism, frankly, that is on the other side of this conflict."
"We're not saying definitively this is what they're going to do," Finer added. "We are saying that this is an option under consideration, and that they have used these sorts of pretext in the past to justify military action."
Finer said the intelligence was publicly revealed to "make it more difficult for this exact plan to be executed."
The Biden administration last month warned that intelligence indicated Russia sent operatives into Ukraine for a false-flag operation to justify military action against the former Soviet republic.
Russia has a history of involving misdirection in its military operations.
When Russia invaded and annexed Crimea in 2014, it sent in masked troops wearing unmarked uniforms — often referred to as the "little green men." The Kremlin initially denied these mysterious armed men were Russian troops, with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the time claiming they were just "local self-defense forces." Putin later acknowledged the little green men in Crimea were, in fact, Russian soldiers.
Moscow has also consistently denied Russian troops are present in eastern Ukraine, despite solid evidence (including Putin's own words) showing otherwise.
Since late 2021, Russia has gathered roughly 100,000 troops on Ukraine's border. The Kremlin says it has no plans to invade, while rejecting calls to pull its troops back. The Biden administration in recent days has said a Russian invasion could be imminent, adding that it's unclear whether Putin has made a firm decision to take military action against Ukraine.
President Joe Biden has ruled out sending troops to Ukraine, given it's not a NATO member, if Russia invades. But the US has deployed additional troops to Eastern Europe as a sign of support for NATO allies in the region. Biden has also warned Russia it would face severe sanctions that could cripple its economy if it invades.