US alleges Russia planning false flag operation against Ukraine using 'graphic' video
CNN
The US is alleging that Russia has been preparing to "fabricate a pretext for an invasion" of Ukraine, this time using a "graphic" video that would depict a fake attack against Russia.
A senior administration official told CNN that the US has intelligence suggesting that the Russian government, with the help of Russia's intelligence services, has been planning to produce a propaganda video depicting graphic scenes of a "staged false explosion with corpses, actors depicting mourners, and images of destroyed locations and military equipment," the official said. The US believes Russia has already recruited actors to be involved in the fake attack.
The US believes that the military equipment used in the video of the fabricated attack would be made to look like it is Ukrainian or from an allied nation. The official said the video could include images of Bayraktar drones, which NATO ally Turkey has provided to Ukraine, "as a means to implicate NATO in the attack."