Kiev Officials Deny Narrative of an “Imminent Russian Invasion”

No one could possibly have missed the mantra, faithfully recited by Western politicians and media alike, that the the 100,000 Russian troops at Ukraine’s border are about to invade the country. What does the Ukrainian Defense Minister have to say about it? “The situation on the ukranien-Russia border at this time is no different from what it was in the spring of last year », Oleksiy Reznikov declared Jan. 26 stated before Parlement. “Now there are no significant actions or phenomena.”

Two days before, speaking on ICTV, he said that “not a single strike group of the Russian armed forces has been established, which attests to the fact that tomorrow they are not going to invade. That is why I ask you to not spread panic.”

Then President Zelenskyy himself reported that he had told President Biden on Jan. 27 that “There is a feeling abroad that there is war here. That’s not the case…. “[W]e don’t need this panic.” The propaganda, he said, is having a negative effect on Ukraine’s battered economy and presents a danger. According to coverage in Radio Free Liberty, he insisted that tensions with Russia had not increased and that the main risk to his country is destabilization from within. On that note, Reuters reported that he cited Great Britain as one of the countries that allows money laundering by Russians and by oligarchs who withdraw money from countries such as Ukraine and Kazakhstan. One can infer from that that he fears mass protests against his regime similar to those that broke out in Kazakhstan one month ago.

While downplaying the immediate war danger, Zelenskyy said that an escalation is still possible, and therefore he needs more money and military equipment from the West and NATO. He also promotes the severest of sanctions against Russia.

Furthermore, the Secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) Alexey Danilov told BBC Jan. 25 that the panic over an impending invasion from Russia may be due to the fact that the Washington Post misinterpreted what he had said back in October, and he restated that the number of Russian troops is not sufficient for an invasion, nor is it “increasing in the way that today many are representing.”

Finally, to mention the latest incident of “fake news”. Reuters reported on Jan. 28 that Russia was sending “blood products” and other medical supplies to the border area, in preparation for the combats expected. That was denied by Kiev’s Defense Ministry the next day, in an official statement noting that no such activity had been monitored by Ukraine’s services. In a jab at Western media, the statement goes on to urge others “not to disseminate unverified information” and “to use official data.”

With the regime in Kiev contradicting the war party’s propaganda so openly, one must assume that its days are counted….