Russian Defense Ministry Ridicules U.S. State Spokesperson Lies, Accuses U.S. of Training Troops for Urban Assaults

The Russian Defense Ministry official representative, Gen. Igor Konashenkov, said Thursday that Moscow hoped the Department of State would be rid of its status as a whirlpool of absurd declarations after the former spokesperson, Jen Psaki, quit her position, TASS reported yesterday.

“However, we were mistaken, since the claims voiced by the new spokesperson, Marie Harf, about the concentration of the highest amount of Russian air defense systems in eastern Ukraine since August, again astonish us with the level of their incompetence,” General Konashenkov said.

Marie Harf claimed earlier that the increasingly complicated nature of training courses for the Donbass separatists “leaves no doubt that Russia is involved” — i.e., as usual, the claims of troops, tanks, air defenses, etc. come with no effort to provide any evidence.

General Konashenkov joked: “The Russian Defense Ministry will not be surprised if it hears one of these days that Russia is accused of rolling out a strike group of aircraft carriers in the Lugansk region, or of an illegal entry into the First City Pond in Donetsk by a Russian nuclear submarine.”

He said such statements aim to stir public commotion ahead of the NATO summit, due in Antalya on May 13-14.

He added, however, that the very real concern is that the U.S. training of Kiev troops, which began this week, is on the storming of buildings in urban districts, and is taking place “in the areas adjoining the zones of conflict in Mariupol, Severodonetsk, Artyomovsk, and Volnovakha,” despite claims to the contrary from Washington.