Russia’s all-out attack on Ukraine is entering its second week. As of March 8, according to the Pentagon, 100 percent of the invasion forces Russia built up over the last year are now in Ukraine.
Russian forces have fired nearly 700 missiles into Ukraine. Multiple cities are under siege, and Ukrainian authorities said Russia destroyed a Mariupol hospital complex, violating a cease-fire. There is no exact count of Ukrainian and Russian soldiers killed, but estimates are in the thousands.
The United Nations confirmed 1,424 civilian casualties but said it believes the real numbers are “considerably higher.” Some 2 million Ukrainians have fled to neighboring countries.
It is worth reminding readers that Russia’s leaders and diplomats repeatedly lied about or misrepresented the Kremlin’s military buildup prior to the February 24 invasion. Here are some stand-out examples; readers are welcome to suggest more more at this link.
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Date: November 3, 2021
Speaker: Maria Zakharova, Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman
Quote: Referring to a Bloomberg News report of possible invasion: "This wasn’t one fake news item; this is an entire fresh fake news campaign in American media outlets."
Source: TASS, Russian state news agency
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Date: November 12, 2021
Speaker: Dmitry Peskov, Russian presidential spokesman
Quote: “Russia doesn’t threaten anyone … The movement of troops on our territory shouldn’t be a cause for anyone’s concern.”
Source: Associated Press
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Date: November 12, 2021
Speaker: Dmitry Peskov, Russian presidential spokesman
Quote: "These headlines are nothing more than empty and unsubstantiated fomenting of tensions."
Source: TASS, Russian state news agency
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Date: November 22, 2021
Speaker: Dmitry Peskov, Russian presidential spokesman
Quote: “Russia does not harbor any aggressive plans. It is completely wrong to say the opposite, and it is completely wrong to associate any movement of the Russian Armed Forces across the territory of our country with such plans. This is not true.”
Source: Pravda.ru
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Date: December 4, 2021
Speaker: Statement by the Russian Embassy in Washington
Quote: "Russia is not a threat to any country. The deployment of Russian troops on the national territory is our sovereign right and no one's business."
Source: TASS, Russia state news agency
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Date: December 5, 2021
Speaker: Leonid Slutsky, Russian State Duma Committee on Foreign Affairs
Quote: "The Western media outlets, it seems, en masse, opened a permanent section ‘Tales about Russia’s plans of attacking Ukraine,” he [Slutsky] wrote. “Now the German Bild has distinguished itself in this field, its journalists drew a map of the Russian ‘invasion,’ based, scary to say, on sources in NATO and the Ukrainian intelligence.”
Source: TASS, Russian state news agency
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Date: December 12, 2021
Speaker: Dmitry Peskov, Russian presidential spokesman
Quote: "The current ... tensions and so on are being created to further demonize Russia and cast it as a potential aggressor.”
Source: NBC News
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Date: January 11, 2022
Speaker: Sergey Ryabkov, Russian deputy foreign affairs minister
Quote: “Essentially it is said that Russia wants to trade its, quote-unquote, threat against Ukraine for more flexibility on the part of U.S. and the West …This is not the case because we have no intention to invade Ukraine. And thus, there is nothing to trade with.”
Source: Politico
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Date: January 28, 2022
Speaker: Oleg Stepanov, Russian Ambassador to Canada
Quote: "[Russia] will not invade Ukraine. ... We are not going to ... try to disrupt that territorial integrity of Ukraine. We recognize Ukraine as a sovereign state."
Source: Toronto Star
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Date: January 28, 2022
Speaker: Sergey Lavrov, Russian foreign minister
Quote: "If it depends on the Russian Federation, there will be no war … We do not want wars, but we will not allow our interests to be rudely attacked, we will not allow our interests to be ignored."
Source: CBS News
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Date: January 31, 2022
Speaker: Vasily Nebenzya, Permanent Representative of Russia to the United Nations
Quote: “Not a single Russian politician, not a single public figure, not a single person said that we are planning to attack Ukraine.”
Source: Washington Post
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Date: January 31, 2022
Speaker: Vasily Nebenzya, Permanent Representative of Russia to the United Nations
Quote: "Our Western colleagues are talking the need for de-escalation. However, first and foremost, they themselves are whipping up tensions and rhetoric and are provoking escalation ... You are almost calling for this, you want it to happen, you're waiting for it to happen. As if you want to make your words become a reality."
Source: Daily Mail
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Date: February 12, 2022
Speaker: Yury Ushakov, Kremlin foreign policy adviser
Quote: "Today’s conversation was held … against the backdrop of an unprecedented push by U.S. official(s) to whip up hysteria over the allegedly imminent Russian invasion of Ukraine. … Similar requests for urgent conversations have been filed by other members of the Biden administration … It was thus a coordinated effort to pump out hysteria about the ‘invasion,’ which is now at its height.”
Source: Kremlin website
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Date: February 12, 2022
Speaker: Vladimir Putin, Russian president
Quote: "The facts are that Americans are artificially whipping up hysteria around an alleged Russian plans for the invasion, even providing the dates of such an invasion … Conditions are being created for the Ukrainian armed forces to take provocative actions amid allegations about an ‘invasion.’”
Source: TASS, Russia state news agency
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Date: February 12, 2022
Speaker: Maria Zakharova, Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman
Quote: "The hysteria of the White House is more indicative than ever. The Anglo-Saxons need a war. At any cost. Provocations, misinformation and threats are a favorite method of solving their own problems."
Source: The Independent, British newspaper
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Date: February 13, 2022
Speaker: Margarita Simonyan, editor-in-chief, RT (formerly Russia Today)
Quote: “…[I]f Russia is compelled to interfere with what’s happening in Ukraine, [it will only be] with the goal of ending the war in Ukraine, not to start a war in Ukraine.”
Source: “Evening With Vladimir Solovyov”
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Date: February 15, 2022
Speaker: Sergey Lavrov, Russian foreign minister
Quote: "As for drills that Russia conducts on its own territory and in accordance with its own plans … they begin, are implemented and concluded as planned … This is done irrespective of who thinks what, who is hysterical about [Russia’s alleged preparations for an invasion of Ukraine] and how, who and how is setting in motion real information terrorism. I’m not afraid of that word.”
Source: Ruptly, Russian state-owned video news agency
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Date: February 16, 2022
Speaker: Dmitry Polyanskiy, Russia's Deputy Ambassador to the United Nations
Quote: “Why such hysteria this time? This is absolutely artificial hype, [an] artificial problem. Those who escalate it, this problem, should de-escalate. And it’s not Russia who did so … As any country, if we are not attacked or provoked … there will be no war that we initiate.”
Source: BBC
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Date: February 16, 2022
Speaker: Maria Zakharova, Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman
Quote: "I’d like to request U.S. and British disinformation: Bloomberg, The New York Times and The Sun media outlets to publish the schedule for our upcoming invasions for the year. I’d like to plan my vacation.”
Source: TASS, Russian state news agency
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Date: February 16, 2022
Speaker: Vladimir Chizhov, Russia’s envoy to the European Union
Quote: “As far as Russia is concerned, I can assure you that there will be no attack this Wednesday. There will be no escalation in the coming week either, or in the week after that, or in the coming month. Wars in Europe rarely start on a Wednesday."
Source: The Independent, British newspaper
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Date: February 17, 2022
Speaker: Dmitry Polyanskiy, Russia's Deputy Ambassador to the United Nations
Quote: "[Russian troops] are in their bases. Sometimes the number of troops in bases increases. Sometimes it decreases. This is normal process for every country, not only Russia. So why such a hysteria this time? This is absolutely artificial hype, artificial problem. And those who escalate this problem should de-escalate."
Source: BBC
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Date: February 20, 2022
Speaker: Anatoly Antonov, Russian Ambassador to the United States
Quote: "There are no such plans [for an invasion of Ukraine] … Russia has publicly declared its readiness to continue diplomatic efforts to resolve all outstanding issues … Russian troops are on sovereign Russian territory. We don't threaten anyone."
Source: CBS’s "Face the Nation”
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Date: February 20, 2022
Speaker: Dmitry Polyanskiy, Russia's Deputy Ambassador to the United Nations
Quote: "Where do you take this figure 150,000 [Russian troops on the Ukraine border]? I remember it was 100,000, then it was 120,000. Now it is 150,000. Some people say 190,000. So, I admit inflation is very high here in New York. We see it in the prices. But on the number of soldiers [shakes head no]."
Source: Sky News
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Date: February 24, 2022
Speaker: Leonid Slutsky, Russian State Duma Committee on Foreign Affairs
Quote: "We do not intend to unleash any war. We are not going to invade Ukraine as we are being accused of in Ukraine itself and not only there.”
Source: TASS, Russian state news agency
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Date: February 24, 2022
Speaker: Vasily Nebenzya, Permanent Representative of Russia to the United Nations.
Quote: "During this [emergency session of the UN security council], the President of Russia, [Vladmir] Putin said that he had made a decision for a special military operation in the Donbas … From [Putin’s] statement ,the occupation of Ukraine is not in our plans.”
Source: PBS News Hour (YouTube)
