The United States warned this Friday that there is “the clear possibility” that Russia will attack Ukraine next week, for which it asked its citizens to leave the country in the next 48 hours and ordered the deployment of 3,000 more soldiers in Poland.
As he secretary of State, Antony Blinken, as well as the National Security Adviser of the White House, Jake Sullivan, warned of the “high risk” of Russia attacking Ukraine during the Winter Olympics, which are held until February 20 in Beijing.
“Our impression that military action could happen any day, before the Olympics are over, is becoming more and more resounding. It’s a very, very distinct possibility,” Sullivan said, hours after Blinken issued a similar warning from Australia.
At a press conference, Sullivan acknowledged that the United States is still not clear that Russia has made a definitive decision to invade, but assured that it maintains “all the forces it needs to launch a major military operation” on Ukraine’s borders.
“If there is a Russian attack on Ukraine, it is likely that it will start with aerial bombardments and missile attacks that would obviously kill civilians, regardless of their nationality,” warned the adviser to President Biden.
Next there would probably be “a ground invasion involving a huge number of” Russian troops, possibly with “a rapid assault on the city of Kiev”, and in that context commercial means of transport could be interrupted “with practically no advance notice”, he added.
Leave Ukraine in 48 hours
Therefore, Sullivan urged Americans in Ukraine to leave the country “within the next 24 to 48 hours” and warned that there is “no prospect of a military evacuation from the United States in the event of a Russian invasion.”
“The president will not endanger the lives of our men and women in uniform by sending them into a war zone to rescue people who could have left but chose not to,” he stressed.
His “urgent message” to Americans in Ukraine came days after Biden first called for the departure of the 6,600 US citizens who the State Department said were living on Ukrainian soil at the end of last year.
The United Kingdom, Norway and Denmark also asked their citizens to leave Ukraine this Friday while there are still commercial means available to do so, while Spain assured that it has prepared the evacuation device for Spaniards in case it had to be activated.
3,000 soldiers to Poland
The tone of alarm also increased in the Pentagon, which ordered the deployment of 3,000 more soldiers in Poland to “dissuade any potential aggression against NATO’s eastern flank,” a high-ranking Defense official told Efe.
This brings to 6,000 the number of soldiers that the United States has decided to send to Europe temporarily to respond to the crisis in Ukraine, and that is added to the more than 80,000 US soldiers who are on the continent on permanent missions or rotary.
The 3,000 soldiers that the Pentagon ordered to deploy this Friday join another 1,700 that Biden authorized to send last week to Poland, another 1,000 that he decided to assign to Romania and another 300 to Germany, all of them under US command, and not from NATO.
Biden reviewed the situation in Ukraine this Friday with a dozen NATO allies, and this Saturday he will speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin for the first time since December 30, 2021, a senior US official told Efe. .
Biden will talk to Putin
The conversation will take place tomorrow in Washington, according to the source, who explained that Russia initially wanted the call to take place on Monday, but the White House pressed to bring it forward to Saturday, something the Kremlin accepted.
“We would like to find a diplomatic solution,” Sullivan insisted on Friday.
Russia insists that it does not want a war with Ukraine and has demanded a series of security guarantees from the West to prevent NATO from expanding further east and placing offensive weapons near Russian borders.
In the call this Friday, Biden and the leaders of seven other NATO member countries promised to continue “coordinating their efforts to deter further Russian aggression against Ukraine,” including the prospect of impose sanctions massive attacks on Moscow if it were to invade, according to the White House.
The German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz; the president of France, Emmanuel Macron; British Prime Minister Boris Johnson; that of his Canadian counterpart, Justin Trudeau, and the Italian Prime Minister, Mario Draghi.
The presidents of Poland, Andrzej Duda, and of Romania, Klaus Iohannis, as well as the Secretary General of NATO, Jens Stoltenberg; the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and the President of the European Council, Charles Michel.
“Whatever happens, the West is more united than it has been in years,” Sullivan said.