Ned Price, the Spokesperson of US Department of State, once again talked about Russia - Ukrainian crisis during the press-briefing.

“You heard from the Secretary once again today that we are doing everything we possibly can to seek to find a peaceful resolution to the crisis Moscow has needlessly precipitated. But those efforts, as we’ve said, will be effective only if the Russian Federation is willing to de-escalate.

To be very, very clear, we have not seen that. In fact, we have seen the opposite in recent weeks and even in recent days: More Russian forces, not fewer, are at the border. And they are moving, concerningly, into fighting positions. This is cause for profound concern.

At the same time, and as we have warned previously, over the past several weeks we have also seen Russian officials and Russian media plant numerous stories in the press, any one of which could be elevated to serve as a pretext for an invasion. This could happen, we are concerned, at any time, and the world should be ready for it. It could involve claims about Ukrainian military activity in the Donbas, false claims of U.S. or NATO activities on land, at sea, or air, even claims of Ukrainian or NATO incursions into Russian territory.

We are particularly concerned about President Putin and other Russian officials, their ongoing mentions of, quote/unquote, “genocide” in the Donbas. There is no basis of truth to any of these allegations.

This, however, has not stopped the Russians from advancing these false claims to include reports of unmarked mass graves of civilians allegedly killed by Ukrainian Armed Forces, and statements that the United States or Ukraine are developing biological or chemical weapons – the latter for use in the Russian-controlled territories – or that the West is funneling so-called guerillas and terrorists in to kill locals. These allegations, again, are entirely, completely false. They are entirely untrue.

These are false narratives that Russia is developing for use as a pretext for military action against Ukraine.

In Russia – in December, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoygu accused NATO and the United States of planning to, quote/unquote “commit provocations” by delivering tanks of, quote, “unidentified chemical components” to the Donbas region for Ukraine’s use. These are straight out of Russia’s well-documented playbook, including from its previous military incursions into Ukraine and Georgia – and from disinformation operations in other parts of the world, including in Syria where Russia continues to conduct a disinformation campaign to defend Syria’s use of chemical weapons.

People must treat any and all of these claims with the appropriate and healthy skepticism, especially when they come from Russian state media sources, and aren’t backed up by independent media reporting. Russia relies on confusion, Russia relies on obfuscation, Russia relies on misinformation and disinformation to cover its tracks. We should all expect that, and we should all be ready for it”, - said Ned Price.