‘US cannot be believed on Ukraine claims’
MOSCOW/PARIS: The Kremlin said on Friday that Washington could not be trusted after US officials claimed to have evidence of a planned operation by Moscow to film a fake Ukrainian attack on Russians.
“I would recommend not to believe anyone, and especially the state department, when it comes to these issues,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
The Pentagon said on Thursday it had evidence of a plan by Moscow to film a fake Ukrainian attack on Russians to justify an assault on its pro-West neighbour.
Neither the Pentagon nor state department spokesman Ned Price, who also commented on the alleged plan, offered evidence to back up the claim.
Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov on Friday accused “Western colleagues” of making things up. “The delusional nature of such fabrications - and there are more and more of them every day - is obvious to any more or less experienced political scientist,” he said in televised remarks.
French, German leaders to visit Russia, Ukraine The French president and the German chancellor will head to Moscow and Kyiv in the coming weeks, adding to diplomatic efforts to try to deter Russian President Vladimir Putin from launching an invasion of Ukraine and find a way out of the growing tensions.
France’s Emmanuel Macron is scheduled to visit Moscow on Monday and Kyiv on Tuesday, while Germany’s Olaf Scholz will travel to Kyiv on February 14 and Moscow on February 15.
While France is a major player in Nato and is moving troops to Romania as part of the alliance’s preparation for possible Russian action, Macron has also been actively pushing for dialogue with Putin and has spoken to him several times in recent weeks.
The two will hold a one-onone meeting Monday, Macron’s office said on Friday.
Macron is following a French tradition of striking a separate path from the US in geopolitics, as well as trying to make his own mark on this crisis and defend Europe’s interests.
Germany has emphasized the importance of various diplomatic formats in tackling the tensions and has refused to send weapons to Ukraine, irking some allies. Scholz also has faced criticism at home lately for keeping a low public profile in the crisis.
It’s unclear how much impact the trips will have. But Ukraine’s foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba said on Friday that “top-level visits seriously reduce challenges in the sphere of security and upset the Kremlin’s plans.”