Russian Envoy Says ‘Leaks’ of Russian Operation in Ukraine Are Part of Information War

"These lies are part of information war against Russia. For several months already, Washington has been agitating the entire world with claims that Ukraine is about to fall victim to "Russian aggression." However, a mishap happened since there is no invasion," the Russian ambassador said. "Apparently, in order to be more convincing, the use of ‘leaks’ from some intelligence data began with blasphemous and unfounded allegations that you mentioned," the envoy noted, TASS reported.

According to the Russian diplomat, "there is an impression that US spin doctors in an attempt to discredit Russia are acting according to a ‘throw enough mud and some of it will stick’ principle. We know the price of such ‘evidence’ by the US intelligence who deeply disgraced itself at the time by handing a tube with white powder to the US Secretary of State to justify the Iraq invasion," the ambassador stressed.

"I would like to assure Newsweek’s readers without reservation that Russia does not intend to attack anyone. We need good-neighborly relations with the fraternal Ukrainian people," he emphasized.

The dissemination of false claims that Russia is planning a "false flag operation" in Ukraine may serve as a preparation of an alibi for potential actions by Ukraine’s Armed Forces (UAF) against Donbass, Antonov told.

"We consider current US actions on pumping Ukraine with weapons to be erroneous and highly dangerous. By doing so, the US panders to a nationalist group in Kiev which is doing everything in order to turn the Russian-speaking population into a persecuted minority in an ethnocratic state," the envoy said. "We are urging the US not to playact for the gullible. Fantasies on the subject of Russian ‘false flag’ operations, by all appearances, serve to create an alibi for the UAF’s possible operations against Donbass," he explained.

"We are concerned over the US stance on the situation around Ukraine," the diplomat noted. He reiterated that Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart Joe Biden at the Geneva summit "agreed that the Minsk Accords are the basis for settling the crisis in this country’s southeast." "Our common task is to make Kiev fulfill its obligations, sit at the negotiating table with the representatives of the DPR and LPR and peacefully reach an agreement on everything," he stressed.

At a briefing for journalists on Thursday, US State Department Spokesman Ned Price claimed that Russia had prepared a staged video of events in Ukraine yet refused to provide any proof. Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov stressed that it was not the first time the US published materials on Russia’s plans to ‘invade’ Ukraine yet there was no follow-up.

Lately, Ukraine and the West have been increasingly echoing claims of an alleged possible Russian "invasion" of Ukraine ever more frequently. Peskov branded such information as an "empty and groundless" escalation of tensions, emphasizing that Russia does not pose a threat to anyone. That said, he didn’t exclude the possibility of provocations being whipped up in order to justify such claims and warned that attempts to resolve the problem in southeastern Ukraine through the use of force would have the most serious consequences.