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Classic Putin, he recognises that his time is limited and he's worried about his legacy.
War in Ukraine is 'inevitable' with a Russian invasion just days away, it was claimed last night.
It came after President Vladimir Putin amassed tens of thousands of troops on the border, with intelligence sources suggesting he may launch a disguised attack on his own forces to justify going into Ukraine.
Tobias Ellwood, Tory chairman of the Commons defence committee, said: 'I am afraid an invasion by Russian forces is inevitable and imminent and we have allowed this to happen.
place sufficient military hardware and personnel in Ukraine to make President Putin think twice about invading but we failed to do so.
'Only President Putin knows what he is going to do next but next week would seem pivotal.
'He has negotiated himself into a corner and after Nato refused to bow to his threats seemingly only one option remains.'
The UK and US have dismissed Russian demands for a veto on former Soviet republics joining Nato and rebuffed calls for the removal of Western troops from eastern Europe.
that Russia had already sent saboteurs into Ukraine with the intent of stirring up trouble.
US national security adviser Jake Sullivan claimed Russia was 'laying the groundwork to have the option of fabricating a pretext for an invasion'.
A US official said: 'We have information that indicates Russia has already pre-positioned a group of operatives to conduct a false flag operation in eastern Ukraine.
'The operatives are trained in urban warfare and in using explosives to carry out acts of sabotage against Russia's own proxy forces.'
A false flag operation is a disguised act with the intention of blaming another party.
Mr Sullivan told reporters Russia used similar tactics in 2014 when it seized Crimea and backed an ongoing insurgency in eastern Ukraine.
Top US diplomat Michael Carpenter warned: 'The drumbeat of war is sounding loud.'
The Daily Mail can reveal that RAF spy planes have mounted surveillance flights in the region to monitor Russian troop movement and radio communications.
On Thursday, an RC-135 aircraft, packed with sensors and listening devices, flew over Ukraine's southern coast. A Kremlin spokesman last night dismissed claims of an invasion as 'unfounded'.
US has intelligence Putin will stage a 'false flag' attack on his OWN troops to set up a pretext to invade Ukraine after talks between the US and Russia collapsed
CV by Secretary Jen Psaki warned of human rights violations and war crimes if diplomacy failed and the Russian government went ahead with its plans.
The claim of a false-flag operation echoes Ukraine's Ministry of Defense, which said that Russian special services were preparing provocations against Russian forces in order to frame Ukraine.
And a day earlier, President Biden's national security adviser said that the U.S. had intelligence that Russia was preparing a pretext for invasion.
'Our intelligence community has developed information ... that Russia is laying the groundwork to have the option of fabricating a pretext for an invasion, including through sabotage activities and information operations, by accusing Ukraine of preparing an imminent attack against Russian forces in Eastern Ukraine,' he told reporters at the White House
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said the result was a 'crisis in European security.'
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...-invasion.html
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