U.S. President Joe Biden warned there is still a very high risk of a Russian invasion within several days. And, in what the United States described as an unprovoked move, Russia expelled a senior U.S. diplomat in Moscow.
Milan, Feb 18: Tensions spiked anew over Ukraine on Thursday with conflicting claims over whether Russia had drawn down troops it has been massing for weeks around Ukraine, escalating hostilities in Ukraine’s separatist-controlled east and intensified diplomacy. U.S. President Joe Biden warned there is still a very high risk of a Russian invasion within several days. And, in what the United States described as an unprovoked move, Russia expelled a senior U.S. diplomat in Moscow.
A day after Moscow said it was returning troops to bases, the NATO allies said Russia is actually building up forces near Ukraine. At the same time, Ukraine and the Russia-backed rebels in its east accused each other Thursday of intensive shelling along the line of contact in Donetsk and Luhansk.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, on his way to an annual security conference in Germany, was rerouted to the United Nations to promote a diplomatic solution.
Russia says it moved its troops away from the conflict zone. But NATO allies say constant movements mask their true intentions.
NATO allies accuse Russia of misleading the world by saying some 7,000 troops were being returned to bases, but instead moving in thousands of new ones.
NATO allies accuse Russia of misleading the world by saying some 7,000 troops were being returned to bases, but instead moving in thousands of new ones.
Maxar Technologies, a commercial satellite imagery company that has been monitoring the Russian buildup, reported continued heightened military activity near Ukraine, including a new pontoon bridge and a new field hospital in Belarus.
Russia has massed an estimated 150,000-plus troops on three sides of Ukraine in recent weeks, but denies it is plotting an invasion.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Russia has enough troops, enough capabilities, to launch a full-fledged invasion of Ukraine with very little or no warning time, and that is what makes the situation so dangerous.
The fact that you’re putting a battle tank on a train and moving it in some direction doesn’t prove a withdrawal of troops, he said. It has to be a meaningful withdrawal, a meaningful de-escalation.
Shelling along the border in Ukraine’s separatist-controlled east also has fueled speculation that Russia might be creating a pretext to invade Ukraine. A sharp increase in skirmishes in recent days raised that specter.
In the latest incident, separatist authorities in the Luhansk region reported an increase in Ukrainian shelling. The Ukraine military said it had not fired back after its forces were shelled. They said the shells also hit a kindergarten, wounding two civilians.
