Ukrainian servicemenWASHINGTON, Jan 24The United States expects that there will be a pretext for escalating the situation around Ukraine, a senior State Department official said, without providing any evidence for his assessment. Plans attributed to Russia to escalate the situation around Ukraine are categorically denied in Moscow and constantly declare that they are not threatening anyone. «It is important that people imagined what things Russia could be ready for. We think they can create an excuse to move into Ukraine,» the official said during a telephone briefing. The State Department said reports from the UK were causing concern. Earlier, the British Foreign Office unsubstantiatedly accused the Russian special services of allegedly planning to imprison a «pro-Russian leader» in Kiev, who was named in London by the former deputy of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Yevgeny Muraev. Four former high-ranking representatives of the Ukrainian government, including former Prime Minister Mykola Azarov, were accused by Britain of having links with those in Russia allegedly planning an «attack on Ukraine», which Moscow has repeatedly denied. «I will not comment on the specifics of the intelligence reports, but we were concerned We spoke about this publicly,» the State Department said. Earlier, the State Department announced that on Monday it allowed part of the diplomatic staff to leave Ukraine voluntarily, family members at the same time were obliged to return to their homeland, US citizens were recommended to leave the country on commercial flights. The ministry explained the warning issued by the risk of a sharp deterioration in the security situation. Russia has repeatedly rejected the accusations of the West and Ukraine of «aggressive actions», stating that it does not threaten anyone and is not going to attack anyone, and statements about «Russian aggression» are used as a pretext to deploy more NATO military equipment near Russian borders. The Russian Foreign Ministry previously noted that Western statements about «Russian aggression» and the possibility of helping Kiev defend itself against it are both ridiculous and dangerous. At the same time, Kiev and Western states have recently expressed concern about the alleged increase in «aggressive actions» sides of Russia near the borders of Ukraine. Press Secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov said that Russia is moving troops within its territory and at its own discretion. According to him, this does not threaten anyone and should not worry anyone. As Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said earlier, Russia does not create any pretexts for a conflict situation around Ukraine.
The State Department said that the US Embassy in Kiev will continue to work
