Konsten att inte svara på frågor eller inte kunna alls, d.v.s. bekräfta sina påståenden. PK från NATO-högkvarteret:
Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III Holds a Press Conference at NATO Headquarters, Brussels, Belgium
FEB. 17, 2022
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MR. KIRBY: Okay, our first question will go to Phil Stewart from Reuters.
Q: Mr. Secretary, who is responsible for the shelling today in Ukraine's Donbas region, and how concerning is it? And what are you doing to lower the risk of dangerous and potentially explosive U.S.-Russia interactions like the close call between aircraft this weekend?
SEC. AUSTIN:
Well, we've seen the reports of the shelling in -- Phil, and they're certainly troubling. We're still gathering the details. But you know, we've said for some time that the Russians might do something like this in order to justify a military conflict, so we'll be watching this very closely.
And in terms of any potential -- potential interaction with our aircraft and -- and someone else's aircraft, of course, we'll follow our -- our own procedures very closely, which I think our -- our airmen are very well-rehearsed on, and we'll make sure that we're doing everything that we can to remain safe in the air. And if we see unsafe acts, we'll certainly demarche the people that are responsible for that.
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MR. KIRBY: Next question goes to Bettina Klein from German Radio.
Q: Thanks, Mr. Secretary. I understand you have the evidence that there's more troop building, rather than troop withdrawal in Russia. At the same time, I hear some skepticism, certainly of the German public debate. How can we trust this? How can we trust American intelligence? What do you suggest to build more public trust? And would you consider at one point to make more evidence you have publicly available? Thank you.
SEC. AUSTIN:
Well you know, I -- I don't see this as a competition of narratives. I think, you know, we've been very transparent about -- about everything that -- that we've seen thus far, and we've shared what we -- what we know with our allies and partners and we -- we really have done a very, very extensive job of making sure that our allies knew what we knew as soon as possible.
But I think in order to address the issues that -- the issue that you -- that you raised, the solution is to continue to be transparent, to continue to, you know, talk to -- to the American people and -- and people around the world, quite frankly, and -- and explain what we're seeing. And -- and I think, you know, that -- that has been very helpful thus far. We will continue to do that, and we certainly endeavor to do that while we're in this conference this week.
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MR. KIRBY: Next question goes to Carla Babb, Voice of America.
Q: Thank you for doing this. Ukraine is calling this week's cyber attack the largest in the country's history. Can you confirm whether Russia was behind this attack? And President Biden last month said that if something short of an invasion happens, like if Russia continued to use cyber attacks, the U.S. could respond in a similar way with cyber. So has the U.S. responded to the latest attack? And if not, why not?
SEC. AUSTIN:
In terms of confirming whether or not this was Russia that was behind this, we -- again, the -- the intelligence community continues to assess what -- what happened there. But I would just point to you -- point out to you that this is a play taken out of his -- his playbook. You know, we -- we would expect to see, before any attack we'd -- we'd expect to see cyber attacks, false-flag activities and a -- and a -- and a number of others -- increasing rhetoric in the information space, and we're beginning to see more and more of that.
https://www.defense.gov/News/Transcripts/Transcript/Article/2938678/secretary-of-defense-lloyd-j-austin-iii-holds-a-press-conference-at-nato-headqu/
Där har ni den officiella "bekäftelsen".
