The Biden administration issued a public warning on Wednesday that Russia may try to deploy chemical or biological weapons in Ukraine, even as the White House dismissed Russian claims of unlawful chemical weapons development in the country it has occupied.
Without providing evidence, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova accused Ukraine of running chemical and biological weapons facilities on its soil with the backing of the U.S. this week.
Russia's allegation was termed "preposterous" by White House press secretary Jen Psaki, who suggested it could be part of a plan by Russia to build the basis for using such weapons of mass destruction against Ukraine.
Psaki tweeted Wednesday, "This is all a clear effort by Russia to excuse its further premeditated, unprovoked, and unjustifiable aggression on Ukraine."
The U.S. has been warning for months about Russian "false flag" operations intended to establish a pretext for an invasion.
A false-flag operation occurs when one side of a conflict does an act while attempting to make it appear as if the other side did so, usually to justify an assault on the other side.
The warning on Wednesday suggested Russia was attempting to establish a pretext for intensifying the two-week-old conflict, which has seen the Russian onslaught stalled but not stopped by stronger-than-expected Ukrainian defenders.
The Russian assertion, according to Pentagon press secretary John Kirby, is "a bunch of nonsense."
For years, the Western world has suspected Russia of using chemical weapons in murder attempts against Putin foes such as Alexey Navalny and former spy Sergei Skripal.
Russia also backs Syria's Assad government, which has used chemical weapons against its own people throughout the country's decade-long civil war.
Experts in security and misinformation continue to warn about Russia's efforts to establish a conflict narrative that provides ostensibly plausible justifications for its incursion.
They cited Russia's support for Bashar Al-regime Assad's in Syria as an example of a government attempting to blame the victims of an attack on its own use of illicit weapons.
According to Russia's Defense Ministry, Ukrainians in the small city of Zolochiv brought in over 80 tons of ammonia and are instructing residents in the vicinity how to respond properly in the event of a chemical assault.
The Russians offered no proof of chemical weapons use.
Meanwhile, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence released its annual threat assessment for 2022 on Tuesday, which had been submitted in early February.
The intelligence is only up to the end of January, a few weeks before Russia launched its multi-front campaign against Ukraine.
