Russian government mocks incursion rumors on Twitter

The Russian government has taken to Twitter to mock rumors that the country would invade Ukraine on Wednesday.

While the Kremlin claimed it would withdraw some troops from near the border of Ukraine, a senior Biden administration official said that Russia has actually deployed about 7,000 troops to the border in addition to the estimated 150,000 already stationed there.

The Embassy of Russia in South Africa tweeted a GIF of John Travolta in "Pulp Fiction" looking around an empty front St. Michael's Monastery in Kiev, with the caption: "16 February 2022. Meanwhile in Ukraine."

Russia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs tweeted another GIF Wednesday of a tumbleweed. 

"Today we mark another day of the 'start of war with Ukraine,' which did not happen again, to the Western media outlets' regret, no matter how hard they whip up the hysteria," the ministry captioned the GIF. "See for yourselves what the collective Western media and officials' words are worth."

The Foreign Ministry tweeted a photo with a "FAKE" stamp over a collage of websites claiming that Russia would invade Ukraine.

"This week we witnessed the culmination of misinformation campaign, launched by the West, on Russia's mythical 'invasion' of Ukraine," the ministry wrote. "Meanwhile, [NATO] continues to pump weapons into Ukraine under the information cover they've created."

The Russian Mission to the U.N. tweeted a statement from Russian Deputy Ambassador Dmitry Polyanskiy to the BBC in which he blamed Ukraine for the 2014 Russian invasion of the Ukranian region of Crimea. 

"[Ukraine] has itself to blame that it lost #Crimea," the U.N. mission tweeted.