MOSCOW, February 4. /TASS/. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has slammed as nonsense Washington’s allegations that Moscow is allegedly filming staged videos of the Kiev forces attacking the Donbass, which are aimed at justifying the invasion of Ukraine.

"It’s not my call to guess why our Western colleagues can be surprised now. They are surprised with or without reason, mostly for no reason, or at some reasons that they make up themselves. I saw on the Internet some statements by the Department of State that Russia was plotting to film some fake videos of an alleged Ukrainian attack on the Donbass. The craziness of such ideas <…> is obvious to any more or less experienced political scientist," the Russian top diplomat told Izvestia on Friday.

On Thursday, The New York Times, citing some unnamed US administration officials, said that Russia was allegedly preparing some staged videos of the Kiev forces attacking civilians in Russia or in the republics of Donbass, which aimed to justify the invasion of Ukraine. A similar article was released by the Washington Post newspaper.

In turn, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told TASS that this was not the first time the US had published information on alleged Russian plans to invade Ukraine, but after this followed nothing.