Russia (Reuters) – 12/02/2022. 00:04
New Russian Troop Deployments Detected by Satellite
- Blinken says the invasion may come before the Olympics are over
- Moscow says responding to its demands shows ‘disrespect’
She said Washington Russia is massing more troops near Ukraine and the invasion could come at any time, including during this month’s Winter Olympics, as Moscow toughens its response to Western diplomacy.
Commercial satellite imagery from a private American company showed new Russian military deployments to several locations near Ukraine, and in his so far stark warning to American citizens, President Joe Biden said he would not send troops to rescue anyone who remained there in the event of a Russian presence. assaults.
“Things can go wrong very quickly,” the US president told NBC News.
Biden had a phone call about the crisis with the leaders of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Poland and Romania, as well as the heads of NATO and the European Union.
After that meeting, with anxiety spreading, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson joined a handful of other nations in urging their citizens to leave Ukraine.
He said at the meeting that he feared for Europe’s security and stressed the need for “a heavy package of economic sanctions ready to go, if Russia takes the devastating and destructive decision to invade Ukraine,” his office said.
Meanwhile, Moscow said the answers sent this week by the European Union and NATO to its security demands showed a “disrespect”.
A source familiar with the meeting said that Biden met with his national security advisers last night. The source said that US officials believe that the crisis may reach a critical point, with the escalation of rhetoric from Moscow, the arrival of six Russian warships in the Black Sea, and the arrival of more Russian military equipment to Belarus.
“We’re in a window where an invasion could start at any time, and to be clear, that includes during the Olympics,” Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said. The Beijing Games end on February 20.
“Simply put, we continue to see very worrying signs of a Russian escalation, including the arrival of new forces at the Ukrainian border,” Blinken added.
Japan, Latvia, Norway and the Netherlands also asked their citizens to leave Ukraine immediately, while Israel said it was evacuating relatives of embassy staff.
Russia has already massed more than 100,000 troops near Ukraine, and this week began joint military exercises in neighboring Belarus and naval exercises in the Black Sea.
Russia’s Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov and his US counterpart, General Mark Milley, discussed international security in a phone call on Friday, Interfax news agency reported.
The Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority said that Russia had withdrawn previously announced restrictions related to the naval exercises of ships in the Sea of Azov, which connects to the Black Sea.
