Moscow Takes a Swipe at Western Media over Ukraine ‘Invasion Date’: Will Travel Vacations Accordingly

By Staff, Agencies

Taking a dig at western media outlets that have been foreboding an impending Ukraine invasion, Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said she would like to plan her holidays if they could publish the schedule of Russia's “upcoming invasions."

Zakharova lashed out at certain Western media publications for their dubious claims of Russia’s supposed invasion of neighboring Ukraine.

The Russian diplomat, who also serves as the Director of the Information and Press Department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia, asked the western media to announce the schedule of Russian ‘invasions’ for the coming year so that Russian diplomats can plan their vacations accordingly.

“A request to US and British disinformation media: Bloomberg, The New York Times, The Sun, etc. – announce the schedule of our ‘invasions’ for the coming year, I would like to plan a vacation,” Maria Zakharova wrote on her telegram channel.

This came after certain British news outlets like The Sun and The Mirror published that the ‘invasion of Ukraine’ was to happen at 3:00 AM on February 16 citing American intelligence data. Bloomberg had earlier reported on February 04, with a headline “Russia invades Ukraine” for which it had to apologize with a statement on publishing error.

The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs had earlier issued a statement condemning the ‘fake news campaign’ by Western media outlets as a result of a ‘collusion between the Western governments and media aimed at fanning tensions over Ukraine’ to serve their geopolitical interests.

Commenting on Zakharova’s statements, Dmitry Peskov, Press secretary of Russian President Vladimir Putin asserted that Ukrainians should set alarms and see for themselves that such statements are false.

Russia and the US-led NATO military alliance have recently been at odds over Ukraine. Western countries have accused Russia of preparing for an invasion of Ukraine by amassing 100,000 troops and armaments near the border with that country. Moscow has rejected the allegation, saying the military build-up is defensive in nature and a response to NATO's increased military activity near Russian borders.