As Russia begins its third week of waging war on Ukraine, some U.S. officials are worried that the country could be preparing to use chemical or biological weapons in its invasion.
The worry comes after the Russian Defense Ministry accused the Ukrainian government of planning a false-flag chemical weapon attack.
Russia is believed to be making the claims to "justify a false-flag operation or them using chemical or biological weapons in Ukraine themselves," a U.S. official said, NBC News reported.
Some believe the claims could also be part of a plan to justify Russia's ongoing war on Ukraine.
This would not be the first time Russia has produced false claims, and White House press secretary Jen Psaki shared her thoughts on the matter in a series of tweets Wednesday.
"To be clear: this is preposterous," Psaki said on Twitter.
She said we should be aware that Russia could "possibly use chemical or biological weapons in Ukraine, or to create a false-flag operation using them. It's a clear pattern, and no one should fall for it."
"We took note of Russia's false claims about alleged U.S. biological weapons labs and chemical weapons development in Ukraine," Psaki said. "We've also seen Chinese officials echo these conspiracy theories."
A spokesman for the ministry, Igor Konashenkov, claimed early Wednesday that Ukraine was preparing an attack using poisonous substances in order to blame Russia.
Konashenkov said it was "obvious that in the wake of the special military operation, the Pentagon started having serious concerns about secret biological experiments uncovered on the Ukrainian territory."
With no evidence to substantiate their claims, Russia's Defense Ministry said that a small city in Ukraine, Zolochiv, received over 80 tons of ammonia. It added that the people in the city were learning how to act after a chemical attack.
On Thursday, Psaki again reiterated her thoughts on the comments from Russia, saying that the nation has a history of "inventing outright lies."
She continued saying it was her goal to "make clear to the world that they not only have the capacity, they have a history of using chemical and biological weapons, and that in this moment we should have our eyes open for that possibility."
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