Cocktail of misinformation calls for wariness: China Daily editorial

If Moscow's repeated denials of any plan of invasion have sounded unconvincing to a suspicious Western audience, then Russian President Vladimir Putin's recent defining of what is happening in Donbas as "genocide" will have reinforced Western belief in an imminent "invasion".

Citing changes in the Russian leader's references to the turmoil in east Ukraine, from "smells like" to "seems like" to "is" "genocide", they warn Moscow used the same excuse for its 2014 operation on Crimea.

United States President Joe Biden claims he is "convinced" Putin has made the decision to invade Ukraine, and his government believes the invasion may occur in the "coming days", with the latest Western "intelligence" indicating that Russian commanders have received orders to proceed with an invasion of Ukraine.

But the credibility of the US intelligence community has been called into question on many occasions, and such war-mongering rhetoric has been constant from the US administration since the crisis erupted.

Nobody knows for sure whether that speculated "invasion" will take place, or when it will if it does. Yet what is patently obvious is the present state of affairs is dangerous, and made worse by a cocktail of misinformation that may easily lead to a misreading of the situation and a miscalculation.

Given the layers of mists of misinformation and mutual distrust, which threaten to affect lucid judgment on both sides, it is good that President Putin and President Biden have agreed, at least in principle, to meet, either in person or virtually, to straighten things out.

After all, a solution needs to be found to address both sides' security concerns to resolve the crisis. Washington and NATO have refused Moscow's security demands, but they have yet to find a way to make sure Russia has nothing to worry about NATO's expansion or other potentially threatening moves. And that is where all the problems they are having with Moscow are rooted.

As a result, rather than scaling down recent military deployment near its borders with Ukraine, Russia is reportedly to extend the ongoing joint military drills in Belarus near Ukraine's northern borders, and the large contingent of participating Russian troops will stay "indefinitely".

War as a solution to imagined security threats is out of tune with our times. And the cost of a war for any country may be unbearable. Not to mention a hostile international environment may prove paralyzing for the already struggling global economy.

Preventing any further escalation of the inflammable situation on the Ukraine-Russia border should be the top priority of all parties involved. China urges all parties to refrain from issuing smoke signals that may start a war rather than prevent one and to seek a political resolution to the crisis on the basis of the Minsk-2 agreement.