The initial U.S. tip that China was considering providing lethal aid to Russia for its war in Ukraine came from Russian government officials, according to a current and former U.S. official familiar with the matter, NBC News reported.

U.S. officials then spent weeks corroborating information from other sources and working with allies who provided additional information.

Multiple sources suggesting that China is considering providing lethal aid to Russia, including ammunition and artillery, have raised concerns among Biden administration officials, especially given how such a move by Beijing could shift the dynamics of the war in Moscow’s favor.

“It will not be good for the people of Ukraine”

“The Russian military, fueled or aided by the Chinese infusion of weapons and platforms, is more militarily lethal and more capable. This will not be good for the people of Ukraine,” said a high-ranking official of the administration.

Senior administration officials, including Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and CIA Director Williams Burns, have publicly expressed confidence in the intelligence community and warned China against providing lethal military aid to Russia.

China has denied that it is considering sending lethal aid to Russia, calling the US accusations “disinformation”.

US officials say they have seen no evidence of China’s move or decision to take that step. At a press conference Thursday at the White House, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby was asked how serious the administration believed China could be sending weapons to Russia. “We don’t really know,” Kirby said.

Kirby added that the US believes that China is not ruling out such a possibility, but also sees no evidence that Beijing is going to send lethal aid to Moscow.

Initial information was vague about the specific systems or equipment China would consider providing to Russia, including whether it might provide drones beyond those already on sale, officials familiar with the information said.

“There are varying degrees of confidence as to how seriously China is taking this,” said a second senior US official.

In an interview with CBS News’ Face the Nation, Burns admitted that the decision to release the information was intended to deter China from deciding to provide lethal aid to Russia.

“We believe that China is considering providing lethal equipment,” Burns said. He added: “Secretary Blinken and the president felt it was important to make clear what the implications of this would be.”

There has been discussion within the administration about declassifying and releasing some of the information, but officials have decided not to, at least for now, because of the sensitivity of the sources used to gather the information and because the administration’s goal is to send a message to China before giving it to Russia. euthanasia seems to have worked.

The US accusations that China is considering lethal military aid to Russia came as Beijing unveiled a proposed peace plan to end the war in Ukraine.

President Joe Biden and other high-ranking US officials have said that the proposal is one-sided and only benefits Russia. But Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi said that China’s commitment to a potential peace plan is “not bad.”

Some in the Biden administration see China’s recent signals that it may move away from neutrality in the war in Ukraine and get involved in one way or another as an attempt at a power move aimed at undermining the US after recent talks to strengthen alliances in the Asia-Pacific region.

Other officials cautioned that China has not yet made any decision on whether to get more involved, effectively remaining in the same position it has held since the war began a year ago.

“There are issues that we just know we can’t agree on,” a senior US official said of the Biden administration’s relationship with China. “What we want to do, especially when it comes to Ukraine, we want it to be one of those areas where we see each other face to face.”

In other words, according to the official, one of the goals of the Biden administration is for China to recognize that “it is unacceptable for Russia to kill innocent Ukrainians, and no one should help it do this.”