Britain and NATO say Russia is using an excuse to invade Ukraine

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg warned Russia was organizing ‘false flag operations’ as Britain said a war between Russia and Ukraine could be ‘very, very imminent’

Today, Britain and NATO warned Russia is trying to create a fake “pretext” for its invasion of Ukraine.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Moscow was trying to carry out a “false flag operation” following reports of shelling in the Donbass region in eastern Ukraine.

“We are concerned that Russia is trying to fabricate an armed attack against Ukraine,” he told a news conference at NATO Headquarters in Brussels.

“Nothing is clear yet, nothing is certain about Russia’s intentions. We don’t know what will happen.

“But we do know that Russia has accumulated the largest force we have seen in Europe in decades, in and around Ukraine.

“And we also know that there are many Russian intelligence officers operating in Ukraine… and we have witnessed attempts to disguise, operate under false flags to create pretexts for invading Ukraine.”

He called on Russia to “continue to dialogue” and called for “dialogue and de-escalation”.

The Kremlin on Thursday said it was deeply concerned about the outbreak of violence in eastern Ukraine and hoped that the West would use its influence over Kyiv to prevent further escalation.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Moscow is closely monitoring the situation in Ukraine’s rebel-controlled Donbass region.

But the UK Foreign Minister Liz Truss tweeted: “Reports of unusual Ukrainian military activity in the Donbas are a blatant attempt by the Russian government to fabricate the premise for invasion.

“This is right there in the Kremlin books.”

This breaking news story is being updated.