Risk of all-out war

WASHINGTON: The US says Russia is on the verge of unleashing a massive military attack against Ukraine, dismissing Moscow’s claim to be pulling forces back, as artillery fire hit a Ukrainian kindergarten in the country’s east.

In a dramatic and unscheduled speech to the UN in New York, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said intelligence showed Moscow could order an assault on its neighbour in the “coming days”.

With US and other Western governments saying they see no evidence to support Russia’s claim to be withdrawing, Mr Blinken challenged the Kremlin to “announce today with no qualification, equivocation or deflection that Russia will not invade Ukraine. State it clearly. State it plainly to the world. Demonstrate it by sending your troops, your tanks, your planes, back to their barracks and hangers, and sending your diplomats to the negotiating table,” he said.

Russia denies any invasion plan but warned of “militarytechnical measures” if its demands for a US and NATO pullback from eastern Europe aren’t satisfied.

President Joe Biden, at the White House, accused Moscow of preparing a “false flag operation” as a pretext for an attack and said this could happen “in the next several days”.

“They have not moved any of their troops out – they’ve moved more troops in,” Mr Biden said. “Every indication we have is that they’re prepared to go into Ukraine.”

He added, however, that diplomacy was not dead. “There is a path – there is a way through this,” he said.

Russia has massed enormous air, land and sea forces around Ukraine. President Vladimir Putin and officials say they do not plan to invade and that the troops are only conducting practice exercises.

However, Mr Putin has made clear that the price for removing any threat would be Ukraine agreeing never to join NATO and for the alliance to pull back from a swath of eastern Europe, splitting the continent back into Cold War-style spheres of influence.

The US confirmed it had received Mr Putin’s response to its offers of a diplomatic solution, but did not elaborate.

The Russian foreign ministry indicated there was little to discuss, saying: “We insist on the withdrawal of all US armed forces in Central Europe, Eastern Europe and the Baltics.”

Russia took over Ukraine’s Crimea region and began backing heavily armed separatists in the eastern Donetsk and Lugansk regions in 2014.

Sporadic fighting remains and the Ukrainian army accused the pro-Russian separatists of 34 ceasefire breaches.

Perhaps the most serious was the shelling of a kindergarten in Stanytsia-Luganska. Children were inside but none were hit.