Russian President Vladimir Putin sometimes cracks jokes when he hears bizarre claims by foreign media about the "exact date" of Moscow's alleged planned attack on Ukraine, his spokesman Dmitry Peskov has revealed.
"You know, it's hard to understand [this news], but [Putin] even jokes about it sometimes: he asks to find out if someone has published the exact time, the exact hour when the war will start", Peskov said responding to a question on how the president treats such news articles.
The spokesman added that it's hard to comprehend the "manic information frenzy" surrounding the tensions around Ukraine.
Quick Response From Western Media?
Two British tabloids, The Sun and The Mirror, were quick to oblige and provided the Russian president with the information he joked he craves so much – the exact hour the Russian invasion will allegedly start.
Soon after Peskov shared Putin's joke with journalists, the two media outlets published articles claiming that the attack will start at 3:00 a.m. local time (1:00 GMT) on 16 February. At the same time, The Mirror provided conflicting forecasts claiming in the lead section of its article that the invasion will begin "on Wednesday afternoon".
The tabloids cited information they allegedly obtained from a source familiar with US intelligence.
The US media outlet Politico previously claimed that the invasion would start on 16 February without specifying the time. The media platform cited anonymous officials in its report. The peddling of the "Ukraine invasion" narrative reached its peak earlier this month when Bloomberg got an itchy trigger finger and accidently broke the news of war between Russia and Ukraine and kept it on their website for half an hour before admitting the mistake.
Despite maintaining the rhetoric of an invasion being possible "any day now", US National Security Adviser Sullivan admitted publicly on 13 February that Washington had no way of knowing the exact date and time the alleged invasion would start or even if it would start at all. Moscow has repeatedly blasted such "hysteria" and struck down the claims as fake and a "info-terror" campaign against Russia.
https://sputniknews.com/20220215/can-they-be-more-specific-putin-chuckles-at-media-predictions-on-ukraine-invasion-start-date-1093055866.html