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First on CNN: US intelligence points to Russia’s move to justify invasion of Ukraine

Lakshmi

The official said the United States had evidence that operatives were trained in the use of explosives to carry out sabotage against civil war and Russia’s own proxies.

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said the defense ministry had credible information that Russia was “presenting a group of activists” who could justify “carrying out an operation designed to attack them or Russian-speaking people in Ukraine.” A possible invasion.

The indictment echoed a statement issued by Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense on Friday, saying that Russian special forces were preparing provocations against Russian forces in an attempt to rebuild Ukraine. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan pointed to intelligence during a news conference Thursday.

“Our intelligence community has created information that has now been downgraded, and Russia is laying the groundwork for creating an excuse for an invasion,” Sullivan said Thursday. “We saw this playbook in 2014. They are preparing this playbook again.”

The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense said in a statement on Friday that “military units in the occupied territories and its satellites are receiving orders to prepare for such provocations.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov has denied that Moscow is preparing for provocations in Ukraine.

“So far, all of these reports are unsubstantiated and nothing has been confirmed,” Peskov said.

The discovery by US intelligence comes after a week-long diplomatic meeting between Russian and Western officials over Russia’s deployment of tens of thousands of troops on the Ukrainian border. But the talks failed to make any progress because Russia did not promise to intensify and US and NATO officials said Moscow’s demands – that NATO would never allow Ukraine in the alliance – were not a start.

Several government websites in Ukraine were hit by a cyber attack on Friday, a development European officials have warned could further escalate tensions in Ukraine.

‘We saw this playbook’

The U.S. official said the Biden administration believed Russia may be preparing to invade Ukraine, adding that “this could lead to widespread human rights abuses and war crimes if diplomacy fails to meet their objectives.”

“The Russian military plans to launch the operation several weeks before the military invasion, which will begin between mid-January and mid-February,” the official said. “We saw this drama book in 2014 with Crimea.”

Kirby said Putin may have been directly aware of Russian fake flag operators who were the pretext for an operation in Ukraine.

“If the past was a foregone conclusion, it would be difficult to see that such actions could have taken place without the knowledge of those at the highest levels of the Russian government,” Kirby told reporters on Friday.

Cyber ​​attack hits Ukrainian government websites

The official said the United States has also seen Russian-influenced actors begin to prioritize Russian audiences for an intervention, emphasizing descriptions of human rights abuses in Ukraine and the increased militancy of Ukrainian leaders.

“In December, Russian-language content covering all three stories on social media increased to an average of 3,500 posts a day, up 200% from the daily average in November,” the official said.

US, NATO and European officials held high-level meetings with Russian officials this week. At the end of three meetings on Thursday, both sides came out with a pessimistic view. Russia’s deputy foreign minister has said talks have reached a “stalemate” and a senior US official has warned there is no reason to pursue them. “The war cry is loud” Following the diplomatic sessions.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Friday that Russia hoped NATO would increase its presence on its border with Ukraine if Moscow did not comply with Western demands.

“While our proposals are aimed at reducing military conflict and expanding the overall situation in Europe, the opposite is happening in the West. NATO members are building their strength and air traffic.

Ukrainian government websites have been hit by a cyber attack

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zhelensky has invited President Joe Biden and Putin to hold three – way talks to discuss the security situation, according to Zhelensky’s aide Andriy Yermak.

On Friday, several websites of the Ukrainian government, including its Ministry of Foreign Affairs Targeted in cyber attack He warned Ukrainians to “fear and wait for the worst” with threatening speech. The Ukrainian government says Russia appears to be behind the attack.
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An official from the U.S. National Security Council said President Joe Biden had been briefed on the attack. The United States has so far denied any involvement in the attack, but said it would “provide any assistance needed to recover Ukraine.”

The Pentagon said in a statement that the attack was “imminent” but that it was “just part of the game book we’ve seen in Russia in the past.”

EU chief diplomat Joseph Borel has condemned the cyber attack, warning that it could contribute to an “already tense situation” in the region.

When asked if Russian government or NGO actors were behind the attacks, Borel did not want to “point fingers” but replied that “there is a certain probability of where they came from”.

CNN’s Michael Conte, Katharina Krebs, James Frater, Joseph Ataman, Anna Chernova and Niamh Kennedy contributed to the report.