putin. he said i want all those countries that joined nato since 1997, i want u.s. troops out of there. i want them to be vulnerable. for weeks, experts like yourself have told us here is what it will look like if russia decides to invade. it will be disinformation, false flag operations. there will likely be cyber attacks. the disinformation we have seen, the u.s. now says this car that exploded out of a government building, that was a false flag attack. also says that the cyber attack that we saw early this week attributed that to russia. are you convinced as this latest intel assessment is that putin has not made the decision or all these three elements now just the lead up to an invasion?
are of withdrawing troops from along the border with ukraine. a white house official quoted as saying, far from withdrawing forces from that region, the russians in the last few days had added 7,000 more troops, including some who have arrived today, that is wednesday, here in the united states. that echo, allegations made by the nato secretary general, jens stoltenburg, earlier today, he made the point that instead of actively withdrawing troops, russia was accumulating them along the border them with ukraine. white house officials have also said they are increasingly concerned about the possibility of so called false flag operations by russia, whereby russian troops would carry out some sort of attack against their own forces as a pretext for launching some sort of invasion into ukraine. white house officials say in recent days there have been reports in the russian media
right now vice president kamala harris is in germany leading the american delegation to the munich security conference set to focus on the russian threat. we have reports this morning from moscow to washington and we begin our team coverage with senior national correspondent alex marquardt in ukraine. alex, what has been the response in ukraine for false flag operations, pretexts for attacks and so-called genocide? reporter: laura, there is significant concern not just here but across nato that president putin, as you say, could use what s going on here as a potential pretext or excuse to justify an invasion. that has been warned of by u.s. officials and many others that he could come up with some kind of story or use what s happening
fresh artillery strikes and finger-pointing along the border adding to already rising tensions. highlighting the critical moment, secretary of state blinken rushing to new york where he addressed the u.n. security council, describing how far he fears russia will go to create a pretext to invade, from fake images of mass graves to staged chemical weapons attacks, he says. so-called false flag operations, all while russia s claims of troop pullbacks are being dismissed in the west. in a moment, my interview with the u.s. ambassador to the united nations. but first, to ukraine and richard engel. reporter: today russia put out yet more video it says shows its forces pulling back from ukraine s borders. claims the u.s. slams as false. with president biden now warning the threat of a russian invasion is very high. it s very high. why? it s very because they have not they have not moved any of the troops out.
unprovoked and an escalatory step. bart gorman was ordered out and left russia s capital last week. cnn s erin burnett is in ukraine. the u.s. is detailing these types of false flag operations russia could use and quite vivid pictures. what can you tell us? reporter: they are offering this level of detail and this is the consensus view. as senator tim kaine said there are some allies who don t fully agree putin is eminently going to attack. that is firmly what the u.s. government believes.d tantony b could blame the ukrainians, could say they find mass graves, for example, in the donbas region and blame that on ukrainians for some sort of a