WASHINGTON, February 13. /TASS/. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has asserted that Russia allegedly may use a provocation in order to justify "military action" with regards to Ukraine. This version was expressed by the US top diplomat at a press conference in Honolulu.

"No one should be surprised if Russia instigates a provocation or incident which it then uses to justify military action it had planned all along," he said following a trilateral meeting with his South Korean and Japanese counterparts.

Blinken noted that the top diplomats "discussed the threat that Russia’s aggression poses not only to Ukraine but to the entire international rules-based order which has provided a foundation for decades of shared security and prosperity." According to the US top diplomat, the US, South Korea and Japan together are ready "to meet this challenge and others to come from the position of unity, solidarity and strength."

Lately, Ukraine and the West have been increasingly echoing claims of an alleged possible Russian "invasion" of Ukraine ever more frequently. Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov branded such information as an "empty and groundless" escalation of tensions, emphasizing that Russia does not pose a threat to anyone. That said, he didn’t exclude the possibility of provocations being whipped up in order to justify such claims and warned that attempts to resolve the problem in southeastern Ukraine through the use of force would have the most serious consequences.