- Russia planned to stage a "graphic" fake video to justify an invasion of Ukraine, the US said Thursday.
- The video would depict a fabricated attack by Ukrainian forces.
- The Pentagon said the video would "include corpses and actors that would be depicting mourners."
The US on Thursday said it had intelligence that Russia was planning to use 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," Pentagon spokesperson 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.
The video would show a fabricated attack by Ukrainian forces in eastern Ukraine, where there's an ongoing war against Kremlin-backed separatists, and possibly in Russia as well, the Washington Post first reported, citing US officials.
Deputy national security adviser Jon Finer on Thursday told MSNBC that 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."
This comes after 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 soldiers wearing unmarked uniforms — often referred to as the "little green men." The Kremlin initially denied that 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 admitted that the little green men in Crimea were, in fact, Russian soldiers.
Moscow has also consistently denied that Russian troops are present in eastern Ukraine, where Ukrainian forces are fighting a war against Kremlin-backed rebels, 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 claims it has no plans to invade, while rejecting calls to pull its troops back. The Biden administration in recent days has warned that a Russian invasion could be imminent, while 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 amid the tensions with Moscow. Biden has also warned Russia it would face severe sanctions that could cripple its economy if it invades.