Image Credit: Alex Wong/Getty Images 
The Russian government is engaged in staging a false flag operation which will be used as a pretext to invade Ukraine, Joe Biden told reporters Thursday.
Discussing the conflict, Biden described the threat level of a Russian Ukraine invasion as “very high.”
“Because they have not moved any of their troops out. They’ve moved more troops in, number one. Number two, we have reason to believe they’re engaged in a false flag operation to have an excuse to go in,” Biden told reporters outside the White House.
President @JoeBiden believes Russian President Vladimir Putin will invade Ukraine “in the next several days.” pic.twitter.com/vqq7CrCS1N
— Mediaite (@Mediaite) February 17, 2022
Asked if he believed the invasion would soon happen, Biden agreed, saying, “Yes, my sense is this’ll happen in the next several days.”
Biden added he hopes Putin will take the “clear diplomatic path…laid out” for him, but then added he had “no plans to call Putin right now.”
Biden’s UK counterpart, Boris Johnson, also on Thursday made similar accusations, blaming Russia of shelling a kindergarten as “a false flag operation designed to discredit the Ukrainians, designed to create a pretext, a spurious provocation for Russian action.”
Images circulating on social media show the interior wall of a classroom in Donbas with a giant hole blown out, however a report from a Human Rights Watch reporter says no children were harmed.
This morning, an artillery strike hit kindergarten in Stanytsia Luhanska.
Kids were there, but were unharmed as they were getting ready to go for a walk.
Two staff sustained concussions.
Humanitarian worker on the ground tells me that shelling of residential areas is continuing. pic.twitter.com/ezQ9IXqUi2— Yulia Gorbunova (@yuliagorbunova_) February 17, 2022
“Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the pro-Russian forces had shelled a kindergarten, in what he called a ‘big provocation,’” reports ABC.net.au.
Responding Thursday to accusations by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenbgerg of Russia’s “continued military build-up,” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko described the allegations as “mythical.”
“The Secretary General’s allegations are one example of recent continued insistence by Western officials that Russia still intends to make a military incursion into Ukraine, with a senior US administration official declaring on Wednesday that Russian forces were still gathering near the frontier,” noted Russian state-run media RT.com.
On Wednesday, Moscow reportedly ordered a troop drawdown in Crimea, however Western officials claimed they’d seen no evidence Russia withdrew troops.
The reports of Russia’s alleged false flag comes just two weeks after US State Dept. spokesperson Ned Price was pressed by AP journalist Matt Lee to provide proof of false flag allegations.
“‘What is the evidence that you have that suggests the Russians are even planning this?” Lee asked.
WATCH: Heated exchange between @APDiploWriter Matt Lee and @StateDeptSpox Ned Price on declassified information. pic.twitter.com/8TFJdSW4M6
— CSPAN (@cspan) February 3, 2022
“That’s an action you say they have taken, but you have shown no evidence to confirm that.”
“I mean, this is, like, crisis actors, really? This is like, Alex Jones territory you’re getting into now. What evidence do you have to support the idea that there is some propaganda film in the making?” Lee continued.
On Wednesday, Price revisited his false flag claims saying, Russia was spinning “false narratives… for use as a pretext for military action against Ukraine.”
Appearing at the United Nations Security Council Thursday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken elaborated on the potential Russian false flag, saying, “It could be a fabricated so-called terrorist bombing inside Russia, the invented discovery of a mass grave, a staged drone strike against civilians, or a fake — even a real — attack using chemical weapons.”
U.S. Intel And Media Got It Wrong Again: Russia Did Not Invade Ukraine