The White House says it will no longer describe a potential Russian invasion of Ukraine as "imminent," suggesting the word sent an unintended message when officials used it last week.
"I used that once. I think others have used that once. And then we stopped using it because I think it sent a message that we weren't intending to send, which was that we knew (Russian) President (Vladimir) Putin had made a decision," press secretary Jen Psaki said during a briefing Wednesday.
"I would say the vast majority of times I've talked about it, we said he could invade at any time," she went on. "That's true. We still don't know that he's made a decision."
Last week, Psaki's description of an attack as "imminent" drew anger in Kiev. Ukrainian officials, including Zelensky, disagreed, and said the descriptions could cause panic and economic turmoil, CNN reported.
On Wednesday, Psaki said she'd only used the word "imminent" once, but wouldn't going forward.
