Joe Biden for the first time said to himself “convinced”Friday, February 18, that Vladimir Putin had taken ” decision “ to invade Ukraine and that the multiplication of clashes was aimed at creating a “false rationale” to launch the offensive ” the week “ or even ” days “ who come.
But the President of the United States has left the door open to dialogue. Until an invasion has occurred, “diplomacy is always a possibility”he said, announcing a meeting between his Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Thursday ” in Europe “.
For “avoid the worst”Paris said for its part that French President Emmanuel Macron would speak on the phone with Mr. Putin on Sunday, the day after a call with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky.
The latter plans to go to the Munich Security Conference, which is held until Sunday with many international leaders. Mr. Biden openly wondered if he was « sage » for him to leave Ukraine when the tension is at its height.
“Cynical and cruel”
Fears of a Russian military intervention in Ukraine were stronger than ever on Friday amid rising ceasefire violations between pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainian forces who have been fighting since 2014 in eastern Ukraine in a conflict which has already caused more than 14,000 deaths. The authorities of the pro-Russian secessionist territories in this region ordered the evacuation of civilians to Russia.
“All this corresponds to the strategy already used by the Russians in the past, which consists in creating a false justification to intervene against Ukraine”said President Biden during a speech from the White House after a new virtual meeting with his European and NATO allies.
“It is cynical and cruel to use human beings as pawns to distract the world’s attention from the fact that Russia is building up its troops for an attack”a spokesman for the US State Department said just before.
A US official estimated on Friday that Russia had 190,000 troops on the outskirts of Ukraine and on its territory, including separatist forces. So far, Washington was talking about more than 150,000 troops at the country’s borders.
This is “the largest concentration of military troops” since the Cold War, said NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, judging that Moscow was “able, without further warning, to attack” the neighboring country.
Putin accuses Kiev
The Russian president accused Kiev of fueling the conflict and noted a “worsening of the situation in the Donbass”a region where the Ukrainian army has been fighting pro-Russian forces supported by Moscow for eight years. “All Kyiv has to do is sit down at the negotiating table with the representatives [des séparatistes] of the Donbass and get along »he said, receiving his counterpart from Belarus and ally, Alexander Lukashenko.
The West unanimously promised Moscow devastating economic sanctions in the event of an invasion of Ukraine. They would make Russia a «Couple», hammered an American official on Friday. But Mr Putin brushed off the threat again: “Sanctions will be introduced no matter what. Whether there is a reason or not, they will find one because their aim is to hinder the development of Russia.”.
Throughout the day, belligerents in eastern Ukraine have accused each other of violating a truce and using heavy weapons. In the afternoon, shelling was still heard in Stanitsa Luganska, a city under Ukrainian control, according to journalists from Agence France-Presse. She had already been targeted the day before by shots which notably hit a nursery school.
The separatist leader of the Donetsk region, Denis Pushilin, for his part announced an evacuation of civilians to Russia, “primarily women, children and the elderly”. Its counterpart from the ” Republic “ neighbor of Lugansk, Leonid Passechnik, did the same before calling “all men capable of holding a weapon to defend their country”.
And the Russian president ordered the payment of 10,000 rubles (about 114 euros) to each person leaving these areas. Russian television channels showed images of evacuations of children gathered in the courtyard of their orphanage.
As tensions rise on the ground, Russia again claimed on Friday to withdraw military units from the outskirts of Ukraine, without however convincing its opponents. “It doesn’t happen”, replied the Ukrainian Minister of Defense Oleksiï Reznikov in front of the deputies. US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin even claimed that the Russian military was sending “more strength” and prepared for an intervention “by getting closer to the border, positioning troops, increasing their logistical capacities”.
Russia denies any plan of invasion but demands guarantees for its security, such as the withdrawal of NATO from Eastern Europe, so many demands rejected by the West. At the same time, Washington and London have accused Moscow of being ” responsible “ of the latest cyberattacks targeting official Ukrainian websites this week, despite denials from the Kremlin.