U.S. State Department spokesperson Ned Price on Wednesday said that Russian officials are planting stories in the press that could be used as a pretext for an invasion of Ukraine, warning that many false claims have been circulating.

Price said in a regular press briefing that the United States was concerned by Russian President Vladimir Putin's claim that "genocide" was taking place in eastern Ukraine's Donbass region, rejecting claims that Washington and Kyiv were developing biological or chemical weapons for use in the region as "entirely false."