The United States government has warned this Friday that Russia is planning a false sabotage operation against its forces in eastern Ukraine in order to build a pretext to invade the former Soviet republic. Sources from the Joe Biden Administration have transferred this accusation to the media on the same day that the Kiev government denounced a large-scale cyberattack against its systems in a sign that the conflict continues to worsen.
“Russia has placed a group of operatives in order to carry out a mock operation in eastern Ukraine. These operatives are trained in urban guerrilla warfare and the use of explosives to carry out acts of sabotage against their own Russian agents,” said a US government official. The objective is, according to this source, to “accuse Ukraine of preparing an imminent attack against Russian forces” and thus create “a pretext for the invasion.” That invasion could take place between mid-January and February.
The US government has not given details or shown the evidence that leads to such a conclusion, although it has cited some intercepted communications and movements of people as the source of the information. Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov has dismissed the accusations. “Until now, all these statements have been unfounded and have not been confirmed by anything,” Peskov told the state agency TASS, reports Maria R. Sahuquillo.
The news puts the finishing touch to a week of negotiations between Russia, the United States and European NATO allies that have yielded neither results nor signs of progress. A defiant Kremlin already warned on Monday, at the bilateral meeting with Washington held in Geneva, that Western governments would commit “a big mistake to the detriment of European security” – in the words of the head of the Russian delegation, Sergey Riabkov – if they do not agree. to their wishes, which essentially consist of reducing NATO’s presence in Eastern Europe.
Washington warns that Vladimir Putin is also waging war through social networks and the media, “manufacturing Ukrainian provocations” to justify a military intervention that seems increasingly plausible. This propaganda, according to Washington, is about an alleged worsening of the human rights situation in Ukraine and a radicalization of the Ukrainian leadership. On Thursday, the White House National Security Adviser, Jake Sullivan, already warned that Russia was resorting to “the same instruction manual as in 2014”.
Seven years after the annexation of the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea, Russia has multiplied its presence on the border with the country, with up to 100,000 soldiers, and Moscow’s promises that it does not plan to invade the territory have little credibility in Europe and the United States. United. The Kremlin is bothered by the approach of the Kiev Government to NATO and asks for guarantees from this country that it will not join the Atlantic Alliance, something that it is not willing to give up.
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No country will dictate the foreign policy of another”, nor can it prohibit it from “weaving alliances”, Wendy Sherman, US Undersecretary of State, stressed on Monday after the meeting with Riabkov. Sherman insisted on the need to keep this channel of conversation open, but the tone in Moscow continues to rise as the days go by.
This Friday the Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, stressed that Moscow has “run out of patience” and is seeking written guarantees that NATO will not expand towards Russian borders. “The West has been driven by arrogance and has exacerbated tensions in violation of its obligations and common sense,” Lavrov insisted. reports María Sahuquillo from Moscow. Although it gives a touch of whitewash, the tone of Russia is increasingly elevated. On Thursday, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov refused to rule out a military deployment to Cuba and Venezuela if tensions with the United States escalate.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has proposed holding a virtual summit with Putin and Biden in order to address the crisis and try to stop the escalation of tension.
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