Russia denies accusations of false flag operation, cyber attacks on Ukraine

Russia denied it was responsible for cyber attacks on Ukrainian banks and the country’s Ministry of Defense and accusations that it is looking for a pretext to invade Ukraine.

Instead, Russian entities blamed the U.S. for making “anti-Russian” statements.

“We paid attention to the frankly anti-Russian statements of the Deputy Assistant to the President for National Security E.Neiberger, who accused intelligence agencies of cyber attacks on ️ systems of the Ministry of Defense and a number of commercial banks,” the Russian Embassy in the U.S. said in a statement on Twitter. 

“[Russia] has nothing to do with the events mentioned and, in principle, has never carried out and does not conduct ‘malicious’ operations in the virtual space,” the embassy wrote.

The news comes amid allegations by the U.S. that Russia was responsible for cyberattacks on Ukraine’s government and banks over the past week. President Biden’s deputy national security adviser for cyber and emerging technologies, Anne Neuberger, said that wide-scale attacks were mitigated by Ukrainian cyber efforts.

U.S. officials have countered that argument saying that Russia has used cyberattacks to further destabilize society in Ukraine, according to The Washington Post.

In addition, the State Department said Friday that an explosion that occurred in Donetsk and an evacuation of civilians in the area was an example of a false-flag operation that the Russian government could use as a pretext to justify an invasion in Ukraine.

Currently, nearly 190,000 Russian troops are stationed near the Ukraine border.

Russian ambassador to Washington Anatoly Antonov on Friday also accused the U.S. of disseminating false information in a post to Facebook.

“[T]he United States persistently continues its attempts to impress outright lies,” Antonov wrote late Friday.

He also denied accusations that Russia was poised to carry out an invasion against Ukraine. 

“Allegations of Russia’s responsibility for the escalation cannot be regarded as anything other than an attempt to exert pressure and devalue Russian proposals on security guarantees,” he said. “The authors of these statements should better visit [Ukraine’s contested eastern territories] in person and learn about the tragic consequences of the ‘military assistance’ provided to Ukraine by the United States and its allies.”