eastern Ukraine
Biden fears Russian invasion of Ukraine
Jens Stoltenberg, NATO Secretary General, met with the NATO defense ministers in Brussels on Thursday. Photo: Olivier Matthys/AP/dpa
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Moscow pledges to withdraw troops from the border with Ukraine. But the West doesn’t think so. On the contrary: the situation is getting worse. US President Biden finds clear words.
Despite all the assurances from Moscow, US President Joe Biden fears a Russian invasion of Ukraine in the next few days.
Biden said in Washington on Thursday that the risk of an invasion is “very high” and that he believes it could happen “in the next few days”. Everything indicates that Russia is ready to attack Ukraine. There is also reason to believe that Moscow is involved in a false flag operation, a term used to describe contrivance to artificially stage a pretext for an attack.
At the same time, Biden emphasized that there was still the possibility of a diplomatic solution. That’s why he sent US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to a UN Security Council meeting in New York. Biden also said he has no plans at this time to call Russian President Vladimir Putin again.
But further increases in troops?
Despite protestations from Moscow to the contrary, the US government accuses Russia of further increasing troops and equipment on the border with Ukraine. Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin said on Thursday after the NATO defense ministers held meetings in Brussels: The Russians have asserted that they will withdraw some of their forces after the exercises have been completed, “but we don’t see that – quite the opposite”. He explained: “We see them bolstering the more than 150,000 troops they already have stationed along the border. Even in the past few days.”
Austin further lamented: “We are seeing some of these troops moving closer to the border. We see them flying in more fighters and support aircraft.” Moscow is also increasing its military readiness in the Black Sea. “We’re even seeing them stocking up on blood supplies.” The minister emphasized: “One does not do such things without reason. Especially not when you’re about to pack your things and go home.”
A senior US government official had already said on Wednesday evening (local time) that in the “past few days” Russia had brought around 7,000 additional soldiers near the Ukrainian border. Findings from the US government meanwhile show that Russia’s announcement of a partial withdrawal is “wrong”.
NATO had already spoken of a Russian troop build-up instead of the announced partial withdrawal.