The United States President, Joe Biden, on Friday, said that his administration is convinced that the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, has decided to carry out an attack on Ukraine in the coming days, although he believes there is still room for diplomacy.
This is as the Ukraine-Russia crisis becomes more tensed as reports indicated there were new outbreaks of violence and ceasefire violations with American officials still pushing for a diplomatic solution.
The stunning revelation comes as an extraordinary number of Russian forces advance on Ukraine’s northern and eastern flank.
What the US President is saying
“We have reason to believe the Russian forces are planning and intend to attack Ukraine in the coming week, in the coming days,” Biden said in remarks at the White House. “We believe that they will target Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, a city of 2.8 million innocent people.”
The Biden administration has previously declined to predict Putin’s playbook even as Russia has made huge military deployment to Ukraine’s borders. When asked, Biden said that there was still time for Putin to choose a path of diplomacy.
In his second address earlier in the week, Biden reiterated that the US and its allies are committed to defending every inch of NATO territory from any threat should the crisis on Ukraine’s border with Russia spill over into an all-out war, evoking the alliance’s Article 5 rule.
A cornerstone of the 30-member alliance is the principle of collective defence, known as Article 5, which states that an attack on one NATO country is an attack on all allies.
Biden has accused Russia of conducting a disinformation campaign, including accusing Ukraine of planning its own attack in order to create a pretext for a Russian invasion.
The US President at the White House said, “There is simply no evidence to these assertions and it defies basic logic to believe the Ukrainians would choose this moment, with well over 150,000 (Russian) troops arrayed on its borders, to escalate a years-long conflict.
“All these are consistent with the playbook the Russians have used before to set up a false justification to act against Ukraine.’’
Earlier on Thursday, US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, warned that the renewed Russian aggression against Ukraine will disrupt not only European security but the world’s international order of maintaining peace.
What you should know
- For months, Russia has been building up its military presence just outside Ukraine, its former Soviet neighbour. The Kremlin’s moves have reminded Western officials of 2014, when Russian forces invaded Crimea in Ukraine.
- Biden has warned Putin that Russia could face widespread, devastating economic sanctions if the Kremlin were to move ahead with an attack on Ukraine.
- Russia has denied that the over 150,000 of its troops with advanced military equipment were along Ukraine’s borders preparing for an invasion.
- Meanwhile, Biden had issued fresh warnings that Washington’s allies were ready to impose powerful sanctions designed to undermine Russia’s ability to compete economically, adding that Russia’s new gas pipeline with Germany, known as NordStream 2, would also be halted.
- Last month, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff U.S. Army Gen. Mark Milley told reporters at the Pentagon that Russia’s posture along Ukraine’s border was unlike anything he has seen during his four-decade military career.
- He said the Russians have deployed air forces, naval forces, Special Forces, cyber electronic warfare, command and control, logistics engineers and other capabilities along Ukraine’s border.
