The Ministry of Defence claims Russia could be plotting to use chemical or biological weapons in a "false-flag" operation. Intelligence also suggests that the county intended to justify its initial invasion of Ukraine on February 24 under a similar guise.
False-flag operations are attacks by a government on its own forces to create the appearance of hostile action by an opponent, allowing the government to broadcast images to the world of its opponent’s supposed actions. Observers have been on the lookout for a Russian false-flag attack, a highly visible event that President Vladimir Putin could use as justification for taking military action.
The MoD posted an intelligence update yesterday on Twitter outlining beliefs surrounding Russia's invasion. The tweet read: "Russian accusations that Ukraine intends to use chemical and biological weapons continue. We have seen no evidence to support these accusations.
"Russia could possibly be planning to use chemical or biological weapons in a false-flag operation. Such an operation could take the form of a faked attack, a staged 'discovery' of agents or munitions or fabricated evidence of alleged Ukrainian planning to use such weapons. A false-flag attack would almost certainly be accompanied by extensive disinformation to complicate attribution.
"Intelligence suggests Russia likely intended to use false-flag operations to justify their initial invasion of Ukraine of 24 February."
The United States accused Russia of using a UN Security Council meeting last Friday as a way of “lying and spreading disinformation” as part of a bid to justify the attacks. US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said Russia was playing out a scenario put forth in the council last month by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken — that Putin would “fabricate allegations about chemical or biological weapons to justify its own violent attacks against the Ukrainian people”.
“The intent behind these lies seems clear, and is deeply troubling,” she said. “We believe Russia could use chemical or biological agents for assassinations, as part of a staged or false-flag incident, or to support tactical military operations.”
Russia had requested the council meeting to address its allegations of US “biological activities” in Ukraine — a charge made without any evidence and denied by both Washington and Kyiv. UN disarmament chief Izumi Nakamitsu told the council she was aware of media reports about allegations of biological weapons programmes and said: “The United Nations is not aware of any biological weapons programmes.”
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