The White House on Saturday said that Russia is planning a move ahead for its troops to invade Ukraine, with "false flag operations" planned. "Intelligence findings show Russia is also laying the groundwork through a social media disinformation campaign that frames Ukraine as an aggressor that has been preparing an imminent attack against Russian-backed forces in eastern Ukraine," White House press secretary Jen Psaki said. Psaki claimed operatives trained in urban warfare, who could use explosives to carry out acts of sabotage against Russia's own proxy forces, blaming the acts on Ukraine, have already been dispatched.
The relations between US and Russia are almost at a point of no return. Senior Russian diplomat had warned on Thursday that a Russian military deployment to Cuba and Venezuela can't be excluded if tensions with the United States mount. Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, who led the Russian delegation in Monday's talks in Geneva, said in remarks televised Thursday that he would neither confirm nor exclude the possibility that Russia could put its military infrastructure in Cuba and Venezuela.
The negotiations in Geneva and Wednesday's NATO-Russia meeting in Vienna failed to narrow the gap on Moscow's security demands amid a buildup of Russian troops near Uk raine. Speaking in an interview with Russian RTVI TV broadcast, Ryabkov noted that it all depends on the action by our US counterparts, noting that Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned that Russia could take military-technical measures if the US acts to provoke Russia and raise military pressure on it. Ryabkov said that the US and NATO have rejected the key Russian demand for guarantees precluding the alliance's expansion to Ukraine and other ex-Soviet nations, adding that the stark difference in approaches raises doubts about the possibility of continuing the talks.
The Kremlin on Thursday said it deplored the lack of progress in talks on Moscow's demand for security guarantees against NATO's eastward expansion and strongly rebuffed Western calls for a pullback of Russian troops from areas near Ukraine. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov also warned of a complete rupture US-Russian relations if proposed sanctions targeting Russian President Vladimir Putin and other top civilian and military leaders are adopted.
