Russia Considered Staging a Video to Justify Ukraine Attack, U.S. Says

(Bloomberg) -- Moscow has considered staging a graphic propaganda video that would purport to show an attack by Ukraine on Russia or Russian-speaking people as a pretense for an invasion, according to a U.S. intelligence assessment.

The plot is one of multiple options Russia has developed to justify sending troops across its border into Ukraine, according to a senior U.S. official who requested anonymity to discuss intelligence assessments. The U.S. is publicizing the possibility to undermine the effort, the official said.

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby later confirmed Russia's plans for the propaganda video, saying it would feature corpses and actors pretending to be mourners. Kirby and other U.S. officials didn't immediately provide evidence of their claims.

U.S. officials have repeatedly signaled their concern that Russia would falsify a rationale for military action since Russian President Vladimir Putin began amassing a large-scale buildup on the border with Ukraine. Putin has repeatedly denied he's planning an attack.

Plans for the video come as President Joe Biden this week announced he was deploying additional U.S. troops to Eastern Europe in response to Russian agitation.

Explosion and Corpses

Putin has defended the buildup as necessary to protect Russian security, and has accused Ukraine, the U.S. and Western allies of provocative behavior. But he has also in recent days signaled that he could be amenable to a diplomatic resolution to the crisis.

U.S. officials described Russian intelligence as closely involved in plans for the staged video, and said individuals had already been recruited to help produce it.

Under Russia's plan, the video would depict both an attack -- including scenes of an explosion and corpses -- as well as the aftermath, according to the U.S. intelligence assessment.

“It would involve actors playing mourners for people who are killed in an event they would have created themselves, that would involve the deployment of corpses to represent bodies of people purportedly killed in an incident like this,” said Jon Finer, deputy national security adviser, in an interview with MSNBC. “It shows the level of cynicism, frankly, that is on the other side of this conflict.”

The images will likely be altered so that the military equipment appears to be Ukrainian or from allied nations, according to the U.S. official who asked for anonymity. That could include the depiction of Turkish-made Bayraktar drones in a bid to implicate NATO.

U.S. officials are also monitoring whether Putin is preparing a political pretense for a possible invasion.

The Biden administration believes that a push within the Russian parliament for a new law that would recognize separatist territories in Ukraine as independent could also be laying the groundwork to justify military action. Russia, according to the U.S. official, may portray its military efforts as defending ethnic Russians in those territories.