OREANDA-NEWS The US State Department on Thursday, January 20, published a list of statements by the Russian side on the conflict over Ukraine, which Washington regards as disinformation. Thus, Russia seeks to convince it's citizens of the need for a military operation of the Russian Federation on Ukrainian territory, and Western countries — that Kiev's behavior threatens to provoke a global conflict, Washington notes.

In particular, the United States does not agree that Ukraine and it's government are allegedly the aggressor in relations with the Russian Federation. It was Russia that invaded Ukraine in 2014 and annexed Crimea, Washington stressed. «The false statements of the Putin regime place the blame for the Russian aggression on the victim, Ukraine», the statement says.

Washington rejected the claim that it is the Western countries that are pushing Ukraine to the conflict. Moscow provoked the current crisis by deploying more than 100 thousand military personnel on the border with Ukraine, no such military actions were carried out on the Ukrainian side of the border, the US Foreign Ministry emphasizes. «Russia blames others for it's own aggression, but it is Moscow that must put an end to this crisis peacefully through de-escalation and diplomacy», it says further.

The State Department does not consider the pulling of Russian military personnel to the border with Ukraine to be just a movement of forces on Russia's own territory, as Russian officials have repeatedly assured. «The deployment of more than 100,000 troops and offensive weapons near the borders of a country that Russia has already invaded and is still occupying parts of it is not just a rotation of troops», Washington is confident.

Another example of disinformation is the words of Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu about the allegedly planned US chemical attack in the Donbass, the statement said. The United States, like Russia, has ratified the Chemical Weapons Convention, Washington said.

In addition, the State Department highlighted the lack of reliable information about the threat to ethnic Russians or Russian-speaking persons coming from the Ukrainian government. Washington also rejected the Russian president's claims about the violation of NATO's promise not to expand. The alliance has not made promises not to accept new countries into it's membership, the State Department said. And in response to the statements of the Russian side about the alleged encirclement of the Russian Federation by NATO forces, the United States recalled that the length of the Russian land borders with 14 countries is more than 20 thousand kilometers, and the share of five NATO member countries accounts for only 1215 km of the common border.