The threat of a Russian invasion of Ukraine is increasingly imminent, White House spokesperson Jen Psaki told reporters on Tuesday.
Despite massing some 100,000 troops on the border of Ukraine, Russia continues to insist it has no plans to invade its neighbor further. But the White House and the Pentagon have cited “credible” intelligence that Russia is planning to stage false flag attacks against its forces to create a phony pretext for war.
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“We believe we’re now at a stage where Russia could at any point launch an attack on Ukraine,” Psaki said when asked if the threat of invasion was getting higher or lower. “I’d say that’s more stark than we have been.”
The White House has warned of an accompanying social media disinformation campaign that now averages 3,500 social media posts a day — up 200% from the rate in November. The effort is similar to what Russian President Vladimir Putin directed ahead of the 2014 invasion of Ukraine’s Crimea region, Psaki said last week.
Russian leaders deny the allegations.
“We’re not speaking about military action,” the Kremlin’s chief spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on CNN Sunday. “No one is threatening anyone with military action. This will be just a madness to do that.”
But in his interview with CNN’s Fareed Zakaria, Peskov said Russia would be forced to take “counteractions” if Washington continues to rebuff Moscow’s demands for an end to NATO expansion to the East and deployment of troops and weapons in former Soviet states.
There are two paths forward in the tense situation, per the White House: a “diplomatic path” and “the other path,” with the latter leading to severe consequences for the Russians.
Psaki was also asked Tuesday about Nord Stream 2, a natural gas pipeline running from Russia to Germany that has emerged as a pressure point in negotiations between Putin and leaders from Europe and the United States.
“Germany’s federal network agency has suspended the certification process of Nord Stream 2,” Psaki said. “Our view continues to be that stopping the Nord Stream 2 pipeline is a credible piece we hold over Russia at this point in time.”
The pipeline is not functioning at the moment.
At a news conference in Moscow, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov dismissed U.S. claims of a “false flag” operation that could be used as a pretext for invading Ukraine, mentioning Psaki by name.
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But Psaki reiterated those claims during Tuesday’s briefing, saying the Kremlin is well known for spreading false information.
“One of the key roles we can play here is making very clear that there is a long history of propaganda from Russian leadership,” she said. “They use it as a tool to spread misinformation as a means of gaining ground, and we should be very clear about what’s accurate and what’s inaccurate.”
