Smoke rising in Kyiv, which mayor Vitali Klitschko says faces a "difficult and dangerous moment" as Russian forces step up strikes on residential buildings. AFP
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Almost four weeks into the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Nato said it is concerned that Russia will use chemical weapons in a "false flag" attack.
Warnings about Russia's possible use of a false flag operation were sounded before the war even began – the term itself traces its origins back to the Second World War.
"We are concerned Moscow could stage a false flag operation in Ukraine, possibly with chemical weapons," Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg said on Tuesday.
On February 17, a week before the invasion, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told the United Nations Security Council that Russia had plans to manufacture a pretext for its attack on Ukraine.
This, he said, could be done through a false flag attack whereby one party, in this case Russia, would carry out an attack to make it look as if Ukraine was the perpetrator. The faked attack could give Russia the casus belli, or case for war against Ukraine.
Mr Blinken said this could come in the form of a "fabricated, so-called terrorist bombing inside Russia", or the discovery of a mass grave.
More alarmingly, he said, the false flag could come in the form of a very...
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