“The source of this is <...> intelligence that we have declassified,” Price said.
In response, the journalist asked him to clarify the location of declassified intelligence and provide concrete evidence of their existence.
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“I just talked about them. Of course, I will not disclose what exactly is at our disposal, ”Price said.
The presence of such data in the United States was previously announced by Pentagon spokesman John Kirby. According to him, Washington received information that “Russia will probably want to fabricate an excuse to invade [на Украину]”.
The permanent representative denied the US data on a fake pretext for the invasion of Ukraine
The New York Times (NYT) and The Washington Post (WP) newspapers previously wrote about Russia’s plans to shoot a fake video about the attack by the Ukrainian military, citing intelligence sources and representatives of the American authorities.
The NYT claimed that Russia wants to use the footage to stage an attack by the Ukrainian military on its territory or on the eastern regions of Ukraine. The footage was supposed to include a scene after the explosion, depicting destroyed buildings and corpses, and with Ukrainian weapons. It is now unclear whether these were real or fake victims, WP wrote, citing an unnamed US official. Newspapers accused Russian intelligence and special services of involvement in the preparation of the plan.
At the same time, NYT sources did not provide direct evidence of the existence of the plan and did not specify how they learned about it. The interlocutors of the publication refused to do this under the pretext of compromising methods and sources.
Russian Permanent Representative to the European Union Vladimir Chizhov, in response to US accusations, said that Moscow does not do this. The press secretary of the Russian president, Dmitry Peskov, replied that this was not the first time the United States published such data, but “nothing came of it.”