pretext for its attack. we don t know exactly the form it will take. it could be a fabricated so-called terrorist bombing inside russia. the invented discovery of a mass grave. a staged drone strike against civilians. or a fake, even a real attack using chemical weapons. reporter: despite the dire warningly, blinken urged russia to engage in dialogue and diplomacy. let me be clear: i am here today not to start a war but to prevent one. reporter: but the russians took a different diplomatic approach, explging the second-ranking american official from the u.s. embassy in moscow, something u.s. officials called baseless. and in a written response to u.s. security proposals made last month, russia warned if the u.s. and nato don t agree to keep ukraine out of the military alliance, russia will be forced to respond with measures of a military, technical nature. also tonight, vice president harris is in germany for a major
what s in putin e s mind. the general view, no one knows if he s made the decision to invade or not, but we do know general clark that secretary of state tony blinken laid out very clearly how russia could, in his words, manufacture a pretext for its attack. i want to play kind of the detail that he offered. this could be a violent event that russia will bring on ukraine or an outrageous accusation that russia will level against the ukrainian government. we don t know exactly the form it will take. it could be a fabricated so-called terrorist bombing inside russia. the invented discovery of a mass grave. a staged drone strike against civilians or a fake, even a real attack using chemical weapons. general clark, when you heard him say that yesterday, you heard that and you thought what? well, i think that there s no doubt that the russians will want a pretext for invasion.
by russian troops in to ukraine within just days. although he did say he underscored the point that you just raised, that there still is a window for diplomacy. and what you are seeing today is really the full court press of administration officials trying to work those diplomatic channels. so you have the vice president who is on her way to munich, you also of course with the secretary of state who is headed there now. but before he left, he spoke before the u.n. security council and he talked about the possibility of those false flags that russia may use to try to justify an invasion into ukraine. that listen. we don t know exactly the form it will take. it could be a fabricated so-called terrorist bombing inside russia. the invented discovery of a mass grave. a staged drone strike against civilians. or a fake even a real attack using chemical weapons. russian media has already gun
door open for a diplomatic resolution with a dose of reality. there is a path. there is a way through this. i have no plans to call putin right now. reporter: u.s. officials came out one by one to make clear concerns that russia will invent an excuse to justify an invasion. it could be a terrorist bombing inside of russia. the invented discovery of a mass grave, a staged drone strike against civilians or a fake, even a real attack using chemical weapons. reporter: an abruptly scheduled remarks, sect of state blinken cast doubt on the the diplomacy but laid out in vivid detail what an attack to look like based on intelligence. russian missiles and bombs will drop across ukrainian. communications will be jammed and cyberattacks will shut down institutions. reporter: the pentagon still gathering details as ukraine and russia are blaming one another
ukrainian government. we don t know exactly. it could be a fabricated so-called terrorist bombing inside russia. the invent of the discovery of a mass grave, stage drone strike against civilians, or a fake, even a real attack using chemical weapons. tucker: so they re going to use chemical weapons but it won t actually be them. it will be those diabolical russians. drunk on aftershave. once again, there is zero evidence that any of this is true. this is clearly some sort of intel op being filtered through the state department and the media. but yet, for months now they ve told us russia is definitely going to manufacture a pretext for an invasion. a lone ap reporter asked, how do you know this? they immediately accused him of working for putin. pretty much the only reporter who asked a question like that. there is a depressing irony to