US INTEL: Power-Drunk Putin Planning 'False Flag' to Invade Ukraine
For months now, it has been rather apparent that Vladimir Putin is hoping to bring Ukraine back under his control, and by any means necessary.
The belligerent former KGB man and Russia leader has been amassing military assets on the border between his nation and Ukraine, while threatening through a media mouthpiece to nuke anyone who stands in his way.
Now, as global pressure mounts, it is believed that Putin is planning to take a different route, possibly executing a false flag event in order to drum up support for an invasion.
The US has information that indicates Russia has prepositioned a group of operatives to conduct a false-flag operation in eastern Ukraine, a US official told CNN on Friday, in an attempt to create a pretext for an invasion.
The official said the US has evidence that the operatives are trained in urban warfare and in using explosives to carry out acts of sabotage against Russia’s own proxy forces.
The allegation echoes a statement released by Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense on Friday, which said that Russian special services are preparing provocations against Russian forces in an attempt to frame Ukraine. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan hinted at the intelligence during a briefing with reporters on Thursday.
This isn’t the first time that Russia has considered such a maneuver.
“Our intelligence community has developed information, which has now been downgraded, that Russia is laying the groundwork to have the option of fabricating the pretext for an invasion,” Sullivan said on Thursday. “We saw this playbook in 2014. They are preparing this playbook again and we will have, the administration will have, further details on what we see as this potential laying of the pretext to share with the press over the course of the next 24 hours.”
Ukrainian intelligence officials had previously uncovered a plot, backed by Russians, to conduct a military coup in the country. It appears that the disclosure of that plot to the masses may have prevented any bloodshed from taking place.
