The Pentagon is flatly rejecting Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu’s claim that American military contractors are smuggling chemicals into eastern Ukraine to incite a “provocation.”
Shoigu’s comments came during a meeting in Moscow on Tuesday with the country’s top military officials and President Vladimir Putin, who issued new threats against NATO if the alliance continues with unspecified “aggressive steps.”
The suggestion that U.S. contractors were smuggling “tanks with unidentified chemical components” into Ukraine’s Donetsk region was met with a swift response from the Pentagon, where spokesperson John Kirby said “those statements by Minister Shoigu are completely false.”
The rhetoric coming out of Moscow has been increasingly aggressive, and it appears meant to portray a sense of helplessness in Russia in the face of NATO expansion. In recent months, Russia has massed about 100,000 troops, along with advanced artillery, logistics and support elements that could support a major thrust over the border into Ukraine.