National security advisor Jake Sullivan said U.S. intelligence discovered that “there was a plan from the highest levels of the Russian government to target” civilians in Ukraine.

Appearing on ABC’s “This Week,” Sullivan told host Jon Karl that the “horrifying” images of mass casualties in Ukraine were “downright shocking,” but they were “not surprising.” He said U.S. intelligence presented the information before the war began.

“We, in fact, before the war began, declassified intelligence and presented it indicating that there was a plan from the highest levels of the Russian government to target civilians who oppose the invasion, to cause violence against them,” he said. “To organize efforts to brutalize them in order to try to terrorize the population and subjugate it.

“So this was something that was planned.”

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