MOSCOW (Dispatches) – Russia has no plans to invade Ukraine and suggestions to the contrary are malicious U.S. propaganda, Moscow’s foreign intelligence chief said on Saturday.
U.S., NATO and Ukrainian officials have raised the alarm in recent weeks over what they say are unusual Russian troop movements near the border with Ukraine, suggesting that Moscow may be poised to launch an attack.
Russia has repeatedly said it is free to move its troops in its own territory and that such movements should not be a cause for concern.
“I need to reassure everyone. Nothing like this is going to happen,” Sergei Naryshkin, head of Russia’s foreign intelligence agency, said in an interview broadcast on state television, referring to comments on Russia’s alleged invasion plans.
“Everything that is happening around this topic right now is of course malicious propaganda by the U.S. State Department.”
Naryshkin spoke a day after the State Department’s top U.S. diplomat for European affairs said all options were on the table in how to respond to Russia’s troop buildup near Ukraine’s border and that NATO would decide on the next move after consultations next week.
While U.S. officials have voiced concerns about a possible Russian attack on Ukraine, Moscow has accused Washington, Kyiv and NATO of provocative and irresponsible behavior near its borders.
Earlier, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg had also warned that Russia will face “consequences” for any attempt to invade Ukraine amid escalating tensions between Moscow and its former Soviet neighbor.
“It is clear that if Russia uses force against Ukraine, that will have costs, that will have consequences,” Stoltenberg told a media conference at the NATO headquarters in Brussels on Friday.
Stoltenberg said a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Latvia’s capital Riga next week would address the alleged massing of Russian military units on the border, which provides “very strong reasons to be deeply concerned.”
The U.S. and its allies have stepped their military buildup in the region under the pretext that Russia was planning an invasion of Ukraine.