White House disagrees that conflict in Ukraine poses existential threat to Russia

The White House believes that Moscow has no reasons to portray the conflict in Ukraine as an existential threat, a senior White House official has told reporters.

"The Russians have been trying to paint this war as some sort of fight with the West against Russia, NATO against Russia, the United States against Russia," Coordinator for Strategic Communications at the National Security Council in the White House John Kirby said. 

"[Russian] President [Vladimir] Putin has tried to label this  like it was some sort of existential threat to Mother Russia. And, of course, it’s not; Russia is the aggressor here."