U.S. claims Russia has developed elaborate false-flag plot for Ukraine

The U.S. accused the Kremlin on Thursday of an elaborate plot to fabricate an attack by Ukrainian forces that Russia could use as a pretext to take military action against its neighbour.

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said the scheme included production of a graphic propaganda video that would show staged explosions and use corpses and actors depicting grieving mourners.

The plan for the fake attack on Russian territory or Russian-speaking people was revealed in declassified intelligence shared with Ukrainian officials and European allies in recent days.

It is the latest allegation by the U.S. and Britain that Russia is plotting to use a false pretext to go to war against Ukraine.

The White House in December accused Russia of developing a "false-flag" operation to create pretext for an invasion. Britain recently named specific Ukrainians it accused of having ties to Russian intelligence officers plotting to overthrow Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. The U.S. also released a map of Russian military positions and detailed how officials believe Russia will try to attack Ukraine with as many as 175,000 troops.

"We've seen these kinds of activity by the Russians in the past, and we believe it's important when we see it like this, and and we can, to call it out," Kirby told reporters at the Pentagon.

The U.S. has not provided detailed information backing up the intelligence findings.

Kirby said that the Russians would also stage military equipment used by Ukraine and the West to bolster the credibility of the scheme.

The new U.S. intelligence found that Russia would possibly use Turkish-made Bayraktar drones as part of the fake operation, according to a senior administration official who was not authorized to comment and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The drones supplied by NATO-member Turkey have been used by Ukraine against pro-Russia separatists in the Donbas region, a move that angered Moscow, which has made clear it is strongly opposed to Ukraine being equipped with the technology.

The U.S. unveiled the the intelligence as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan offered to mediate talks between Russia and Ukraine and NATO warned that Moscow's military buildup continues, with more troops and military equipment deployed to neighbouring Belarus than at any time in the last 30 years.

Erdogan, who has close but sometimes difficult ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin, said Thursday that Turkey was "prepared to undertake its part in order to end the crisis between two friendly nations that are its neighbours in the Black Sea."

"I have stressed that we would be happy to host a summit meeting at a leadership level or technical level talks," Erdogan said after about three hours of talks with Zelensky. "Instead of fuelling the fire, we act with the logical aim of reducing the tensions."

Russia has amassed more than 100,000 troops near Ukraine's northern and eastern borders, raising concern that Moscow might invade again, as it did in 2014. The troop presence and uncertainty have unnerved Ukrainians and hurt the country's economy. Russian officials deny that an invasion is planned.