The United States said on Thursday that Russia is about to unleash a massive military attack on Ukraine, dismissing Moscow’s claim that it is withdrawing its forces, while a Ukrainian kindergarten was hit by artillery fire.
In a dramatic, unscheduled speech to the United Nations in New York, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said US intelligence showed Moscow could order an attack on its neighbor in the “coming days.”
After the United States and other Western countries said they see no evidence to support Russia’s claim that it had withdrawn troops from the border, Blinken challenged the Kremlin to “announce today without reservation, misunderstanding or deviation that Russia will not proceed to invade Ukraine”.
“Say it clearly. Say it clearly to the world. Show it by sending your troops, your tanks, your planes, back to your barracks and hangars, and by sending your diplomats to the negotiating table,” he said.
President Joe Biden, in turn, accused Moscow of preparing a “false flag operation” as a pretext for an attack and said this could happen “in the next few days.” “They haven’t pulled out any of their troops. They have moved more troops” toward the border, the president said. “All indications we have are that they are ready to go into Ukraine,” he added, stressing, however, that diplomacy is not dead. “There is a way. There is a way to get through this,” he said.
Russia has concentrated a huge military, air, land and sea device around Ukraine.
No plans to invade
Russian President Vladimir Putin and top officials in his government say they do not plan to invade Ukraine and that troops are only conducting practice exercises.
However, Putin has made it clear that the price for removing any threat would be Ukraine agreeing never to join NATO and the Western alliance withdrawing from a swath of Eastern Europe, effectively dividing the continent into spheres of influence by Cold War style.
The United States said on Thursday that it had received a response from Putin to its offers of a diplomatic solution to the crisis, but did not comment.
The Russian Foreign Ministry indicated that there was little to discuss.
“If there is no willingness on the part of the United States to understand each other on the legal guarantees for our security (…), Russia will be forced to act, especially applying measures of a military and technical nature”, indicated the Russian diplomacy in its response. .
He once again called for “the withdrawal of all United States forces and weapons deployed in Central and Eastern Europe, in Southeastern Europe and in the Baltic States.”
Cfras
2024.
Ukraine has been waging a war against pro-Russian separatists in the east of the country, in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, since 2014. A conflict that has cost hundreds of lives.
34 times.
The Ukrainian army accused the rebels on Thursday of having broken the ceasefire 34 times, 28 of which used heavy weapons.
34 times.
The potentially most serious incident was the bombing of a kindergarten in the town of Stanytsia-Luganska. The children were in the premises, but none were injured.
Provocation.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky tweeted that the attack “by pro-Russian forces is a major provocation.”