White House press secretary Jen Psaki gestures as she speaks during the daily White House press briefing on February 02, 2022 in Washington, DC. © Anna Moneymaker / Getty Images
The US is no longer using the word because it created an unintended message, says Jen Psaki
The US government is no longer using the word ‘imminent in its narrative around the alleged Russian ‘invasion of Ukraine, White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters, on Wednesday, explaining that it was sending an unintended message.
"I used it once. I think others have used that once, and we stopped using it because I think it sent a message that we werent intending to send, which was that we knew that President Putin had made a decision," Psaki said at a press briefing.
"I would say the vast majority of times Ive talked about it, Ive said he could invade ‘at any time," she added.
❗️Russian invasion of Ukraine no longer “imminent”, says the White House, which had promised a Russian invasion every day for near enough two months
— Murad Gazdiev (@MuradGazdiev) February 2, 2022
For a government that missed the Taliban offensive, foretelling a Russian invasion wasn’t going to be easy pic.twitter.com/TjAerpVu7m
Psakis remarks come after the US envoy to the UN backtracked from the use of ‘imminent in an interview with NPR aired on Tuesday.
"No, I would not say that we are arguing that its imminent," Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield told the broadcaster.
The official transcript of Psakis January 25 briefing says otherwise, however. Asked whether the Russian invasion of Ukraine - which the US media and intelligence agencies have claimed since late October would happen any day now - was still "imminent," heres what Psaki had to say.
"When we said it was imminent, it remains imminent," she told one reporter.
"Well, ‘imminent has a pretty intense meaning. Doesnt it?" she said in answer to the very next question.
"And its still the belief that its imminent?" was the followup, to which Psaki replied, "Correct."
Since then, however, Ukrainian media have floated a theory that the whole thing was a big misunderstanding, since there was no exact translation for ‘imminent in Ukrainian. The explanation was picked up by Politico, which also claimed that the word was mistranslated as ‘inevitable to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
However, Zelenskys native language is Russian, which translates the term - derived from Latin - just fine.
LINK: https://www.ansarpress.com/english/26635
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