Opinion
State Division hits again at Russia ‘propaganda,’ says troops shifting ‘into combating positions’
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The State Division on Wednesday hit again on Russian claims that it’s decreasing its troop dimension alongside the Ukrainian border and mentioned the U.S. is worried by the “nice deal of propaganda and disinformation.”
Earlier this week Russian officers claimed that it could be decreasing its pressure dimension alongside Ukraine’s border after amassing roughly 150,000 troops and deploying 30,000 troopers into neighboring Belarus.
A convoy of Russian armored autos strikes alongside a freeway in Crimea, Tuesday, Jan. 18, 2022.
(AP Picture/File)
MOSCOW LOOKS TO SEVER MINSK AGREEMENTS AS RUSSIA, UKRAINE CONFLICT PERSISTS
However regardless of claims that Russian President Vladimir Putin echoed Tuesday, the U.S. and NATO have mentioned they’ve seen no such efforts.
“We have now seen the other,” State Division press secretary Ned Worth advised reporters Wednesday. “In current days extra Russian forces — not fewer — are on the border, and they’re shifting … into combating positions.”
“That is trigger for profound concern,” he mentioned.
Russia on Tuesday launched photos depicting trailers being loaded up with tanks and navy tools, however Worth mentioned these photos are only one component within the Kremlin’s disinformation marketing campaign.
“Over the previous a number of weeks, we’ve additionally seen Russian officers and Russian media plant quite a few tales within the press — any certainly one of which may very well be elevated to function a pretext for an invasion,” Worth mentioned.
The press secretary laid out a litany of falsified tales which have made their manner into the information cycle, in addition to tales that safety officers are anxious Russia may use.
“It may contain claims about Ukrainian navy exercise within the Donbas, false claims of U.S. or NATO actions on land, at sea or air — even claims of Ukrainian or NATO incursions into Russian territory,” Worth mentioned.
On this photograph taken from video and launched by the Russian Protection Ministry Press Service on Friday, Feb. 4, 2022, tanks transfer throughout the Belarusian and Russian joint navy drills at Brestsky firing vary, Belarus.
(Russian Protection Ministry Press Service by way of AP)
NATO CHIEF CONTRADICTS RUSSIA WITHDRAWAL CLAIMS, SAYS NO PROOF OF PULLING BACK
Putin baselessly alleged on Tuesday that “genocide” was being dedicated towards ethnic Russians within the Donbas area in Ukraine, an space that Russia invaded in 2014 and has since backed militarily.
Moscow on Wednesday then claimed to have discovered mass graves in Donbas.
“These allegations are fully, fully false,” Worth mentioned. “There is no such thing as a foundation of reality in any of those allegations.”
The Kremlin’s consideration this week has shifted to the Donbas area, situated in Ukraine’s most japanese flank, and Putin is ready to think about severing the worldwide Minsk agreements by recognizing two breakaway areas in Donbas as “impartial.”
The State Division warned Putin this could immediate a “agency response” from the U.S. and NATO and would “represent a gross violation of worldwide legislation.”
A toddler copies the place of Ukrainian servicemen standing at consideration throughout the nationwide anthem throughout an occasion marking a Day of Unity in Sievierodonetsk, the Luhansk area, japanese Ukraine, Wednesday, Feb. 16, 2022.
(AP Picture/Vadim Ghirda)
“There are Russian phrases after which there are Russian actions,” Worth mentioned. “That is the Russian playbook.”
“They search to obscure and to cover,” he added.
