United States President Joe Biden has warned there is every indication Russia is planning to invade Ukraine.
President Joe Biden, at the White House, accused Moscow of preparing a “false flag operation” as a pretext for an attack and said this could happen “in the next several days.”
“They have not moved any of their troops out. They’ve moved more troops in,” Biden said. “Every indication we have is that they’re prepared to go into Ukraine.”
He added, however, that diplomacy is not dead. “There is a path. There is a way through this,” he said.
Moscow ejected the number two official from the US embassy and released a strongly worded letter accusing Washington of ignoring its security demands.
Early morning exchanges of fire between Ukraine and pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine raised alarm, with Western officials who have long warned that Moscow could try to create a pretext for an invasion saying they believed such a scenario was now unfolding.
Biden ordered Secretary of State Antony Blinken to change his travel plans at the last minute to speak at a United Nations Security Council meeting on Ukraine.
Addressing the council, Blinken sketched out in graphic detail how Washington contends any Russian attack would begin and unfold.
“Missiles and bombs drop across Ukraine, communications will be jammed, cyberattacks will shut down Ukrainian institutions,” Blinken told the UNSC.
“After that, Russian tanks and soldiers will advance on key targets that have already been identified and mapped out in detailed plans.”
Russia denies planning to invade its neighbour and said this week it was pulling back some of the more than 100,000 soldiers it has massed near the frontier. Washington says Russia is not withdrawing, but in fact sending more forces.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said pro-Russian forces had shelled a daycare centre, in what he called a “big provocation”.
Video footage released by Ukrainian police showed a hole through a brick wall in a room scattered with debris and children’s toys.
The separatists, for their part, accused government forces of opening fire on their territory four times in the past 24 hours.
