US says Russia on verge of Ukraine attack
WASHINGTON: The United States said Thursday that 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 a dramatic, previously unscheduled speech to the United Nations 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 of Russia’s claim to be withdrawing, Blinken challenged the Kremlin to ‘announce today with no qualification, equivocation or deflection that Russia will not invade Ukraine.’
“Demonstrate it by sending your troops, your tanks, your planes, back to their barracks and hangers,” he said.
Russia denies any invasion plans but warned of ‘militarytechnical measures’ if its farreaching demands for a US and Nato pullback from eastern Europe aren’t satisfied.
The United States said late Thursday that Blinken and his Moscow counterpart Sergei Lavrov had agreed to meet next week – provided there was no invasion before then.
Keeping up the pressure, President Joe Biden accused Moscow of preparing a ‘false flag operation’ as a pretext for an attack.
“They have not moved any of their troops out. They’ve moved more troops in. Every indication we have is that they’re prepared to go into Ukraine,” Biden said.
He added, however, that diplomacy is not dead. “There is a path. There is a way through this,” he said.
Biden will hold a phone meeting Friday with the leaders of Germany, Britain, France, the European Union and Nato to discuss the Ukraine crisis.
Russia has massed enormous air, land and sea forces around Ukraine. President Vladimir Putin and officials say the troops are only conducting practice exercises.
However, Putin has made clear that the price for removing any threat would be Ukraine agreeing never to join Nato and for the Western alliance to pull back from a swath of eastern Europe, effectively splitting the continent into Cold War-style spheres of influence.
The United States said that it had received Putin’s response to its offers of a diplomatic solution to the crisis, but did not give any reaction to the contents. The Russian foreign ministry indicated that there was little to discuss.
“In the absence of will on the American side to negotiate firm and legally binding guarantees on our security from the United States and its allies, Russia will be forced to respond, including with military-technical measures,” the foreign ministry said.
“We insist on the withdrawal of all US armed forces in Central Europe, Eastern Europe and the Baltics.”
Russia also expelled the number two US diplomat in Moscow, the US State Department said, condemning the ‘unprovoked’ action.
Russia took over Ukraine’s Crimea region and began backing heavily armed separatists in the eastern Donetsk and Lugansk regions in 2014, sparking a war that has already cost thousands of lives. Sporadic fighting remains common in the east.
They have not moved any of their troops out. They’ve moved more troops in. Every indication we have is that they’re prepared to go into Ukraine.
Joe Biden