UN on Bloomberg False Ukraine 'Invasion' Report: All Sides Should Avoid Provocative Rhetoric

UNITED NATIONS (Sputnik) - All parties involved in the situation around Ukraine should refrain from actions and rhetoric that could aggravate the current tensions, Deputy Spokesman for the United Nations Secretary-General Farhan Haq said commenting on a false report published by Bloomberg that claimed Russia has invaded Ukraine.

The Bloomberg news agency published what appeared to be a pre-written headline claiming Russia has launched an invasion of Ukraine before deleting it and admitting the mistake, saying that the circumstances of the incident are under investigation.

"We believe that all sides should avoid any action or rhetoric that could escalate the situation," Haq said when asked if the UN was concerned about such an example of misinformation.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Bloomberg's misleading piece showcases the extremely heightened tensions, spurred by the West's aggressive stance on Russia and demonstrates that such provocative reports might lead to "irreparable consequences," saying that now "any spark is extraordinarily dangerous."

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Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova later reinforced that position by noting that the Bloomberg incident revealed a global campaign unleashed against Russia through political pressure and disinformation.

"This is a way of waging a struggle in conditions when there is no way to withstand competition by legal means, such an approach, which has already become classic, is used of information and political pressure, campaigns, and so on... Now it has already become such a global campaign against our country under the slogan of supposedly impending Russian aggression against Ukraine. There is no logic, no facts, there is a large number of fakes, disinformation, outright madness, multiplied, it seems to me, by some kind of nonsense," Zakharova said to radio broadcaster Radio Rossii.

The precarious situation around Ukraine has deteriorated in recent weeks with the United States and European Union voicing concerns over the Russian military buildup at the Ukrainian border, and NATO urging allies to enhance their military support for Kiev. So far, the US, UK, Canada, Poland and Baltic states have supplied several batches of arms to Ukraine, with Washington dispatching additional forces to neighbouring Poland and Romania.

Russia in turn has repeatedly denied having intentions to invade any country, pointing to NATO's military activity near its borders, which it deems a threat to its national security.