Russia spy chief blasts Joe Biden’s ‘malicious propaganda’ as Ukraine feud escalates

Moscow maintains that it has no plans to invade Ukraine and suggestions to the contrary are malicious propaganda from the US. A Russian intelligence chief on Saturday hit out at US, NATO and Ukrainian officials for raising alarm about possible military action in the region from Moscow. NATO have pointed to unusual Russian troop movements near the border with Ukraine as a signal of a possible future mass assault.

Western military intelligence has suggested that Moscow may be poised to launch an attack in the new year.

However, Russia countered to claim that it is free to move its troops on its own territory and that such movements should not cause concern.

Referring to the fears that Moscow could be about to launch an invasion of Ukraine the head of Russia’s foreign intelligence Sergei Naryshkin said: “I need to reassure everyone.

“Nothing like this is going to happen.

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Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Karen Donfried said: “As you can appreciate, all options are on the table.

“There’s a toolkit that includes a whole range of options.”

Ms Donfried added: “It’s now for the alliance to decide what are the next moves that NATO wants to take.

“Next week, we will talk about our assessment of what’s happening on Russia’s border with Ukraine.

“We will then begin that conversation of what are the options that are on the table.

“We will decide what it is that NATO as an alliance would like to do together.”

After the US statement, Russia claimed Washington, Kyiv and NATO were being provocative and irresponsible with their own behaviour near its borders.

Ukrainian intelligence told the Military Times last week that Russia had more than 92,000 troops massed around its borders.

The intelligence said that Russia could possibly be preparing for an attack by the end of January or beginning of February 2022.