By A. Madhani, L. Cook and S. Fraser -
The Associated Press
The United States accused the Russian government on Thursday of preparing an elaborate plot, including a propaganda video, to fabricate an alleged attack by Ukrainian forces that it could then use as a pretext to take military action against that country.
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said
the video would show staged explosions and use dead bodies
and actors portraying injured people.
That alleged plan to simulate a false attack against Russian territory or the Russian-speaking population in Ukraine was revealed as declassified information and shared with Ukrainian officials and European allied countries in recent days.
A Ukrainian soldier looks back from an armored vehicle near a frontline post in the Luhansk region of eastern Ukraine. Vadim Ghirda / AP
This is the latest known accusation by the United States and Britain against Russia for concocting
false pretexts to justify the feared military invasion of Ukraine.